Daily ETF Watch: ASHR Discount

DB’s first-to-market China A-share fund just got cheaper.

The db X-trackers Harvest CSI 300 China A-Shares Fund (ASHR), a first-to-market fund focusing directly on China A-shares, just got cheaper. That’s because the fund now costs 0.82 percent, or $82 for every $10,000 invested from 1.08 percent, or $108 for every $10,000 invested at its inception in November, according to a regulatory filing.

ASHR will provide U.S. investors with direct access to China A-shares. ASHR, which has more than $200 million in assets, competes with the $29.1 million Market Vectors China ETF (PEK | F-49).

PEK, which has a net expense ratio of 0.72 percent, recently underwent a change to enable it to invest in actual A-shares, just as ASHR does. PEK had been obtaining exposure through derivative contracts. Both ETFs track the same CSI 300 Index.

The A-Shares market looks likely to expand rapidly, with other sponsors looking to exploit the market of shares listed in either Shanghai or Shenzhen. For example, KraneShares has in registration the KraneShares Bosera MSCI China A Share Fund. The fund will have Bosera Asset Management as subadvisor and use Bosera’s renminbi qualified foreign institutional investor status to gain exposure to physical A-shares.

Filings

• San Diego-based Reality Shares Advisors, a newcomer to the ETF space, has filed regulatory paperwork to offer a trio of dividend ETFs as income alternatives in an environment of persistent low-interest rates.

Reality Shares’ latest ETFs include:

• Reality Shares Nasdaq-100 Isolated Dividend Growth Index ETF (passive)
• Reality Shares U.S. Isolated Dividend Growth Index ETF (passive)
• Reality Shares Isolated Dividend Growth ETF (active)

The funds will join a roster of more than 30 other U.S. dividend-focused funds, all of which seek to slice and dice the segment of dividend-paying stocks to find sources of income for investors currently grappling with paltry yields in much of the traditional fixed-income space.