iShares, Europe’s leading ETF provider, has expanded its fixed income range to 40 ETFs with the lauch of four new funds on the London Stock Exchange. iShares has also introduced five new accumulating versions of popular equity ETFs.

The new fixed income funds are as follows:

The iShares Barclays Euro Corporate Bond ex-Financials ETF contains fixed-rate, investment-grade euro-denominated securities from non-financial issuers only. Inclusion is based on the currency of the issue and not the domicile of the issuer.

The iShares Barclays Euro Corporate Bond ex-Financials 1- 5 ETF contains fixed-rate, investment-grade euro-denominated securities from non-financial issuers only. The maturity of bonds is from one to five years to final maturity. Inclusion is based on the currency of the issue and not the domicile of the issuer.

iShares Barclays Euro Corporate Bond 1-5 ETF contains fixed-rate, investment-grade euro-denominated securities. The maturity of bonds is from one to five years to final maturity. Inclusion is based on the currency of the issue and not the domicile of the issuer.

The iShares iBoxx Sterling Corporate Bond ex-Financials ETF tracks the market for non-financial corporate bonds denominated in pounds sterling. The index contains fixed-rate, investment-grade securities from basic materials, consumer goods, consumer services, health care, industrials, oil and gas, telecommunications and utility issuers.

The fixed income ETFs are all Dublin-domiciled and all carry a total expense ratio of 0.20% per annum. All but the sterling corporate bond ETF have euros as their trading currency.

The new accumulating equity ETFs (total expense ratios per annum in parentheses) track the MSCI Emerging Markets (0.75%), S&P 500 (0.40%), MSCI World (0.50%), MSCI Europe (0.35%) and MSCI Japan (0.59%) indices. The funds are all Dublin-based and have sterling as their trading currency.

The addition of non-financials corporate bond ETFs to iShares’ range comes in response to frequent requests from investors to separate exposure to financial and non-financial debt in their ETF portfolios. Many broad benchmark corporate bond indices have a heavy weighting in financial sector debt, something that has held back investor demand during the credit crunch.