Exchange traded funds (ETFs) hit the 1,000 mark last month. With new launches from providers like Grail, IndexIQ, Emerging Global Shares and another try by Northern Trust, it may not be long before the number of ETFs goes well beyond that.
Grail Advisors has selected Western Asset Management to be the subadvisor for its newest fund, the Grail Western Asset Enhanced Liquidity ETF. The fund is an actively managed short-term bond fund that will invest primarily in money market securities and short-term debt.
IMD Business School in Switzerland released its World Competitiveness Yearbook for 2010, which saw Taiwan jump from number 23 to number 8 in the world. In response, Index IQ has already jumped to the occasion and is introducing the IQ Taiwan Small Cap ETF (NYSEArca: TWON).[Other ways to access Taiwan with ETFs.]
The small-cap ETF is designed to provide additional Alpha exposure as a satellite holding built around an investor’s core equity portfolio and seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the performance of the IQ Taiwan Small Cap Index. Taiwan’s rapid industrial and economic development has earned the country the title, “Taiwan Miracle,” and it is considered one of the four Asian tigers. [China and Taiwan’s Improving Relationship.]
Northern Trust looks to be jumping back into the ETF industry with a new suite of products, shortly after dissolving their old fund family. Luisa Beltran for Ignites reports that Chicago-based Northern Trust is seeking to offer equity or fixed-income ETFs as well as funds that are a blend of equities and fixed-income securities. [The Latest Twist on New ETFs.]
No details on expense ratios are available. In 2008, the provider launched an ETF family, or NETS, a line of mostly single-country ETFs that invested in indexes such as the Nikkei of Japan or Germany’s DAX. The funds closed in February 2009 as a result of challenged markets. [Muni Bond ETFs With an End Date.]
Meanwhile, Emerging Global Advisors, a New York-based research and asset management firm specializing in emerging markets, plans to launch the EG Shares Indxx India Infrastructure Index Fund (NYSEArca: INXX) within the next couple of weeks. Indira Kannan for Business Standard reports that the new ETF will have a portfolio of 30 companies involved in India’s infrastructure sector, from copper and cement companies to those providing transportation and movement of capital goods. This new ETF will be the first theme-specific ETF to track India’s economy.
For more stories about new ETFs, visit our New ETF category.