South Africa Follows ETF Trends

Four new exchange traded funds (ETFs) will launch on the Johannesburg stock exchange during the next few months. This brings the total ETFs on the South African exchange to 13. Two Itrix products- one that tracks the FTSE 100 and another that follows the Euro Stoxx 50- allow investors to trade the world’s major indices through their local stockbroker in real time. With three new products in the pipeline, insiders say that investors can expect a U.S. fund, a Japanese fund, and a fund that bunches some of the world’s major indices together, reports Renee Bonorchis for All Africa.com.The only thing left to do is wait for approval from The Financial Services Board. All of the ETFs in South Africa have been simple, vanilla funds that are easy to recognize and understand, but they are saying a new breed of fund is coming. South Africa admits to being a bit behind on world trends, but performance and cost benefits will help ETFs to proliferate there.

On the U.S. exchange, iShares MSCI South Africa (EZA) is up 13.5% for the year.