Daily ETF Watch: EM + All China ETF Coming

KraneShares has filed regulatory paperwork for an emerging market ETF that looks to give investors a glimpse of what the $41.1 billion Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets fund (VWO | C-89) may look like in the future.

The KraneShares FTSE Emerging Markets + All China ETF will track the FTSE Emerging Index including large and mid-cap China A Share listings. VWO currently tracks the FTSE Emerging Index, which has exposure to China, Taiwan, Brazil, South Africa, India, and Russia.

“There’s been a lot of talk about eventually when China A-shares get incorporated into the FTSE Emerging Market index what that’s going to look like,” said Dennis Hudachek, ETF specialist at ETF.com, in a recent analyst call.

“That roll out is expected to happen over a number of years but with this fund, KraneShares is giving investors a glimpse of what the future of VWO might look like and this is going to be a very interesting fund.

No associated fees or tickers were available for the proposed fund.

Filings

Invesco PowerShares, the No. 4 ETF issuer by assets behind Vanguard, has changed the underlying indexes and names of 10 ETFs in an attempt to keep pace with the “big three” ETF powerhouses—iShares, Vanguard and State Street Global Advisors. The 10 ETFs are now adopting Dorsey Wright benchmarks, and one of those funds is also getting a new ticker. 

The ETFs undergoing name and index changes effective Feb. 19, include:

• PowerShares Dynamic OTC Portfolio (PWO) will become the PowerShares DWA Nasdaq Momentum Portfolio. The ticker on this fund is changing to PWO from DWAQ, previously.
• PowerShares Dynamic Basic Materials Sector Portfolio (PYZ) will become the PowerShares DWA Basic Materials Momentum Portfolio.
• PowerShares Dynamic Consumer Staples Sector Portfolio (PEZ) will become the PowerShares DWA Consumer Staples Momentum Portfolio.
• PowerShares Dynamic Energy Sector Portfolio (PXI) will become the PowerShares DWA Energy Momentum Portfolio.
• PowerShares Dynamic Financial Sector Portfolio (PFI) will become the PowerShares DWA Financial Momentum Portfolio.
• PowerShares Dynamic Healthcare Sector Portfolio (PTH) will become the PowerShares DWA Healthcare Momentum Portfolio.
• PowerShares Dynamic Industrials Sector Portfolio (PRN) will become the PowerShares DWA Industrials Momentum Portfolio.
• PowerShares Dynamic Technology Sector Portfolio (PTF) will become the PowerShares DWA Technology Momentum Portfolio.
• PowerShares Dynamic Utilities Portfolio (PUI) to PowerShares DWA Utilities Momentum Portfolio.
• PowerShares Dynamic Consumer Staples Sector Portfolio (PSL) will become the PowerShares DWA Consumer Staples Momentum Portfolio.

PowerShares currently manages $99.4 billion in assets, trailing Vanguard, which currently ranks as the No. 3 ETF shop, with $339.7 billion in assets.