Late January Sees a Rush of New ETF Launches

Amundi Expands ETF Range in Paris and Switzerland
This week, Amundi listed six new exchange-traded funds on the SIX Swiss Exchange tracking emerging market equities and European equities with high dividend yields. Four of the Amundi ETFs offer long exposure to both the MSCI Emerging Markets Asia and MSCI Emerging Markets Latin America indices in USD and EUR denominated versions. The remaining two Amundi ETFs give investors the opportunity to track the performance of high dividend paying stocks in the Europe and the European Monetary Union as measured by the MSCI EMU and MSCI Europe High Dividend indices.

Also this week, Amundi listed an ETF on the Euronext Paris exchange tracking highly-rated eurozone short-term sovereign debt as constructed by EuroMTS. The details for the new ETFs and listings from Amundi can be viewed here.

Commerzbank Launches 16 New ETCs on the Deutsche Börse
Commerzbank launched 16 exchange-traded commodities (ETCs) on the Deutsche Börse this week. The new ETCs offer leveraged long and leveraged short exposure to the Brent oil, natural gas, and copper.

As always, it is vital to understand that because the leverage ratio on these leveraged and inverse products is reset on a daily basis, their performance will likely diverge from their stated leverage ratio (3X, -3X, 4X) over holding periods lasting longer than a single trading day. This divergence will be especially pronounced during periods of market volatility. The details of the new suite of exchange-traded commodities (ETCs) from Commerzbank can be viewed here.

db X-trackers Launches 2 New ETFs on Deutsche Börse
On Wednesday, db X-trackers launched two new ETFs on the Deutsche Börse tracking U.S. and Austrian equities, respectively. Specifically, db x-trackers now provides the first European-domiciled ETF to track an equally weighted version of the S&P 500 index--all companies have a target weighting of 0.2%. Additionally, db X-trackers launched an ETF tracking the ATX index, which measures the performance of 20 Austrian companies in all key sectors on market cap weighted basis. Both products replicate their index synthetically. The details for the new ETFs from db X-trackers can be viewed here.

iShares Launches 4 Dynamic-Rolling Commodity ETFs in London
iShares launched four ETFs on the London Stock Exchange this week that aim to more intelligently manage the effects of roll yield. The new ETFs from iShares reflect the growing awareness of the dynamics of futures markets and traditional index strategies using front-month rolling methodologies. These iShares ETFs seek to roll selectively into different futures contracts in order to maximise the positive effects of backwardation and minimise contango-related headwinds with hopes to improve returns versus traditional commodity benchmarks. The ETFs offer exposure to S&P GSCI aggregate, agriculture, energy, and industrial metals indices. The details for the new iShares ETFs can be viewed here.

Lyxor Adds to Equity ETF Range on the Deutsche Börse
Lyxor launched six new ETFs tracking world, US, Thai, and Indonesian equities on the Deutsche Börse. Three of the new ETFs from Lyxor track the US equity market - both small caps via the Russell 2000 and large caps via the Russell 1000 split along the lines of style. Lyxor also launched an ETF tracking the MSCI All Country World index. In addition, Lyxor listed two ETFs tracking the performance of Thai and Indonesian equities, respectively. The details for the new ETFs from Lyxor can be viewed here.

RBS Bolsters Emerging Market ETF Lineup on the Borsa Italiana
RBS listed five ETFs tracking frontier and emerging markets on the Borsa Italiana this week. Three of newly listed ETFs from RBS track MSCI indices that seek to measure the respective performance of the aggregate frontier market, emerging and frontier Africa ex-South Africa, and nations from the Gulf Cooperation Council ex Saudi-Arabia. In addition, two RBS ETFs aimed at tracking the performance of Latin American equities through the MSCI Brazil and MSCI Emerging Market Latin American indices. The details for the ETFs from RBS can be viewed here.