On a day when the first exchange traded fund offering direct access to Chinese A-shares stocks, the db X-trackers Harvest CSI 300 China A-Shares Fund (NYSEArca: ASHR), debuted, the issuer behind the first U.S.-listed ETF to offer any type of access to the highly restricted A-shares market is making its own headlines.
Market Vectors said it is working with a Chinese asset manager and that it expects to gain Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (RQFII) status. That means the Market Vectors China ETF (NYSEArca: PEK) would have direct access to Chinese stocks trading in Shanghai and Shenzhen, the primary A-shares markets.
PEK, which celebrated its third anniversary last month, was the first ETF to offer U.S. investors to the A-shares market, but the fund does so by investing “in swaps and other types of derivative instruments that have economic characteristics substantially identical to those of China A-Share stocks,” according to Market Vectors.
PEK, which has $32.1 million in assets under management, holds a basket of Credit Suisse derivatives based on the CSI 300 Index, the same index ASHR tracks. [Deutsche’s China A-Shares ETF Debuts]
“PEK’s prospectus has allowed for an RQFII sub–‐advisor for some time, so we are excited that the Chinese market has finally opened up so the Fund can pursue utilizing this type of arrangement,” said Amrita Bagaria, ETF Product Manager with Market Vectors, in a statement.
Financial services names dominate the CSI 300 Index and PEK has a 38.6% weight to that sector. Industrials and consumer discretionary combine for another 24.4%.