Prime Minister David Cameron swept to victory in Thursday’s U.K. election, surprising onlookers and pundits as his conservative party won 323 seats in parliament.
A stunning collapse by Labour in Scotland and the Torries strengthening their position in Wales were among the catalysts lifting Cameron and the Torries.
“Nearly every Liberal Democrat member of the government lost their seat, including Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, Ed Davey, the Energy Secretary, Danny Alexander, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and Jo Swinson, a business minister,” according to The Telegraph.
News of Cameron’s resounding victory has the pound and U.K. equities soaring Friday. The CurrencyShares British Pound Sterling Trust (NYSEArca: FXB) is higher by almost 1.2% and flirting with the $151.50 area, a level FXB has not closed above in nearly three months. [Sterling Hedged ETFs Could Rise]
However, the big story among U.S.-listed U.K. exchange traded funds may be coming courtesy of the newest member of that group. The Recon Capital FTSE 100 ETF (NasdaqGS: UK), which debuted last week, is up 3.4% Friday and trading at its highest levels since coming to market.
UK is the first U.S.-listed ETF to track the U.K.’s benchmark FTSE 100 index. The FTSE 100 allocates nearly 12% of its weight to energy names with banks at almost 10.5% being the only other sector to command a double-digit weight, according to Recon Capital data. Personal and home goods along with industrial goods and services each have weights north of 9% in the index.
All of the FTSE 100’s, and in turn UK’s, top 10 holdings trade in New York. That group, which combined for about 39% of the index’s weight at the end of March, includes familiar names such as HSBC (NYSE: HBC),BP (NYSE: BP) Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-A) and GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK). [Finally, a FTSE Tracker in the U.S.]