State Street Global Advisors debuted the SPDR MSCI EM Beyond BRIC ETF (EMBB) in early December. The fund competes directly with Emerging Global Advisors’ EGShares Beyond BRICs ETF (BBRC) and Global X’s Next Emerging & Frontier ETF (EMFM).
EMBB—like BBRC and EMFM—avoids the so-called BRIC countries in favor of less popular investment destinations in the developing world.
State Street Global Advisors debuted the SPDR MSCI EM Beyond BRIC ETF (EMBB) in early December. The fund competes directly with Emerging Global Advisors’ EGShares Beyond BRICs ETF (BBRC) and Global X’s Next Emerging & Frontier ETF (EMFM).
EMBB—like BBRC and EMFM—avoids the so-called BRIC countries in favor of less popular investment destinations in the developing world.
Invesco PowerShares said in December that it was closing four ETFs and changing up the underlying indexes and names of 10 ETFs.
The four funds that were slated for closure on Feb. 18, 2014 have combined assets under management of $58.3 million, and include:
Van Eck Global rolled out a quartet of international and emerging market “quality” and “quality dividend” strategies on the NYSE Arca on Jan. 23. The new funds focus on stocks with high returns on equity, stable year-over-year earnings growth and low financial leverage—as well as those types of stocks that shoot off attractive dividends.
S&P Dow Jones Indices in mid-December said that at the beginning of 2014, it would roll out a family of five indexes covering the Mexico bond market via a partnership with Valuacion Operativa y Referencias de Mercado.
The new benchmarks are designed as replacements for the Dow Jones Latixx Mexico Government Bond indexes, which were discontinued on Dec. 31, 2013, the press release said.
The five indexes cover Mexican government securities and include the following:
Russell Investments launched a new index in December. The Russell UK Mid 150 Index is the first U.K.-dedicated index from the U.S.-based provider.
It is made up of 150 stocks from the midcap sector listed on the U.K. stock exchanges and denominated in sterling. The stocks are then all screened on a monthly basis according to their capacity to be traded in volume, which means that the index as a whole can be easily and quickly traded within an index-based portfolio.
In January, S&P Dow Jones Indices launched a new index that will give investors exposure to the highest-yielding Shariah-compliant stocks from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
The new S&P GCC Composite Shariah Dividend Index comprises the 30 highest-yielding stocks from the S&P GCC Composite Shariah Index, which is made up of Shariah-compliant stocks and also acts as a benchmark for the six GCC countries—Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Macquarie launched a new index in December that will benchmark and forecast food and agricultural prices, and is intended to help indicate the direction of food inflation.
The Macquarie Agricultural Commodity Price Index, or MacPI, was designed by Macquarie Commodities Research, and is the first index of its kind whereby it will indicate food inflation for the industry and economists.