- LOGIN
- |
- REGISTER
- |
- RSS
- |
- IU IN THE NEWS
- |
- ABOUT US
- |
- CONTACT
- |
- IndexUniverse.eu
|
S&P Launches Investable GCC Index In July, S&P launched a new investable index covering the markets belonging to the Gulf Cooperation Council, a trade bloc formed by six Persian Gulf states—Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. S&P already has several indexes covering the GCC markets, including a few that it has labeled “investable,” but the S&P GCC 40 is the first one to be narrow-based. Saudi Arabia, the largest market of the six, is excluded from S&P‘s investable indexes covering the GCC because it is not accessible to foreign investors. The index takes the top 40 stocks in terms of float-adjusted market capitalization from the S&P/IFCI indexes for Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. Constituents must have market caps of at least $400 million and a three-month average daily traded value of at least $1 million. Each country can have no more than 12 constituents in the index, which is weighted by modified market capitalization. Barclays Rolls Out Power Index Family Barclays Capital has launched a new family of “investable” power indexes tied to the price of electricity nationwide. The main index tracks the price of electricity in six major regional hubs based on peak power forward contracts with a range of maturities. Subindexes covering the different regions and maturities are also available. The indexes are weighted by region based on historical annual peak electricity demand. The index is designed to be investable, so it seems likely that products based on it might be forthcoming in the near future. New Index Fund Tracks Hedge Funds IndexIQ has recently launched an open-ended mutual fund that tracks the firm’s own hedge fund strategies index. The underlying IQ Alpha Hedge Index uses proprietary algorithms to replicate the returns of six major hedge fund strategies: Equity Long/Short; Global Macro; Emerging Markets; Fixed Income Arbitrage; Equity Market Neutral; and Event Driven. Alpha is then sought by optimizing the relative index weights among the six strategies. The objective of the index is to provide superior returns with lower volatility relative to the S&P 500, and with a correlation similar to that between hedge funds generally and the S&P. IndexIQ uses ETFs and a variety of other highly liquid financial instruments to provide exposure to the components of the index in approximately the same weighting. The fund employs leverage totaling 25% of the portfolio to magnify returns. The IQ Alpha Hedge Strategy Fund has a net expense ratio of 1.64% for investor shares and 1.39% for institutional shares—cheaper than the average hedge fund. Currently, the IQ Alpha Hedge Strategy Fund is available only through IndexIQ. New Index To Gauge Inflation Through TIPS Launches The investment banking division of London-based financial giant Barclays Bank has launched an index that automatically shifts between long- and short-term Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) based on market sentiment indicators. The Algorithmic Inflation Momentum Switching (AIMS) Index is designed to capture movements between the long- and short-term TIPS markets. It also tracks market participants’ shifts between nominal bonds to TIPS. The index may be used to underlie principal-protected structured notes and over-the-counter derivatives, according to Barclays. However, an ETN based on the index—or even an ETF—would also seem to be a possibility. FTSE Launches New Alternative Energy Index The FTSE Group recently launched a new alternative energy benchmark. The FTSE Environmental Opportunities All-Share Index is made up of 450-plus constituents covering alternative energy, water and waste management companies. The All-Share benchmark’s constituents are taken from the FTSE Global Equity Index Series and are included in the index if a minimum of 20% of their revenue comes from environmental markets or technologies. Most indexes that focus on renewable energy favor smaller firms that have at least 50% or more of their revenue—or count renewable energy as their core business—in alternative energy endeavors. Constituents are researched by Impax Group, the specialist environmental investment company, which has partnered with FTSE to develop a range of indexes within the environmental technology space. According to FTSE, Russell Investments has already licensed the index for an environmental technology multimanager fund. S&P 500 Assets Up 100% In Past Decade S&P says that $4.85 trillion in assets are benchmarked against its S&P 500 index, a figure that includes actively managed funds. About 30%, or $1.47 trillion of that is indexed assets, a 12% increase in assets from the end of 2006, and almost a 100% increase from the end of 1997. That amount includes not just S&P 500 index funds, but also enhanced index assets and assets tied to style and composite indexes that are derived from or include the S&P 500. About $1.2 trillion of that is in regular index funds or exchange-traded funds. The grand total of indexed assets for all of S&P’s indexes is $1.71 trillion, meaning the S&P 500 represents about 86% of that. |
© Copyright IndexUniverse.com 2008, All rights reserved. Permalink
