Wednesday’s debut of the db X-trackers Harvest CSI 300 China A-Shares Fund (NYSEArca: ASHR) may not have been the Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) initial public offering, but as far as exchange traded funds go, ASHR’s launch was at the higher end of the anticipation spectrum.
After all, ASHR is the first U.S.-listed ETF to offer investors direct access to Chinese A-shares, the stocks listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen that have previously been tough to access for foreign investors. [DB’s China A-Shares ETF Officially Debuts]
Another point speaks to the fanfare surrounding ASHR’s debut: Between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, not one, but two ETF issuers said they are moving forward with plans to gain Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (RQFII) status, meaning the ETFs can be foreign owners of A-shares. [KraneShares Eyes Its Own A-Shares ETF]
ASHR is still the first and it ended its first day of trading with nearly $109 million in assets under management, above the $100 million line that, right or wrong, so many ETF industry observers used to judge an ETF’s success.
ASHR “managed to draw the biggest initial capital investment for any ETF since 2007,” reports Victor Reklaitis for MarketWatch.