July 29, 2008 at 1:00 am by Tom Lydon
Ireland is going to have another index and soon, another exchange traded fund (ETF) to back it.
Elizabeth Rauber for San Francisco Business Times reports that the Nasdaq OMX Ireland Index will launch on July 28.
PowerShares will create an ETF to track the index, and list it on the Nasdaq stock market. The index and ETF will have 23 components and have a market capitalization of $97 billion.
The Irish Deputy Consul General in New York has emphasized the importance of the United States as a key investment and trade market for Ireland.
Ireland’s economy hasn’t been unaffected by the global credit crunch, though. The Bank of Ireland reported slowed earnings as customers are having difficulty repaying their loans, reports Peter Ranscombe for the Scotsman.
Ireland already has one ETF, the NETS ISEQ 20 Index Fund (IQE), which launched on June 16. It’s most heavily weighted in financial services, with 35.6% of the holdings, followed by pharmaceutical and biotech at 20.3% and construction and property investment at 19.9%. The Bank of Ireland is the fund’s fourth-largest component, with 8.3% of the holdings.
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