BOSTON, March 11 (Reuters) - State Street Corp on Thursday unveiled a new exchange-traded fund investing in shares of red-hot Russian companies.
The Russian stock market has almost tripled over the past year, by far the best performance of major country equity indexes. Only Ukraine and Romania rose more, according to data from Bespoke Investment Group.
The new SPDR S&P Russia ETF is based on Standard & Poor's BMI Russia Capped Index. The index consists of 72 Russian stocks, each with a float-adjusted market capitalization of at least $100 million and a minimum value traded of $50 million in the previous year.
State Street's new fund will take on the $1.5 billion Market Vectors Russia ETF managed by Van Eck Global. The Market Vectors fund, based on the DAXglobal Russia+ Index, skyrocketed 167 percent in the 12 months ended Feb. 28.
Boston-based State Street is one the largest managers of ETFs, with $204 billion in assets in its line of SPDR funds at the end of 2009.
(Reporting by Aaron Pressman; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn) Keywords: STATESTREET/ETF (aaron.pressman@thomsonreuters.com; 617-942-1752; reuters messaging: aaron.pressman.reuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
The Russian stock market has almost tripled over the past year, by far the best performance of major country equity indexes. Only Ukraine and Romania rose more, according to data from Bespoke Investment Group.
The new SPDR S&P Russia ETF is based on Standard & Poor's BMI Russia Capped Index. The index consists of 72 Russian stocks, each with a float-adjusted market capitalization of at least $100 million and a minimum value traded of $50 million in the previous year.
State Street's new fund will take on the $1.5 billion Market Vectors Russia ETF managed by Van Eck Global. The Market Vectors fund, based on the DAXglobal Russia+ Index, skyrocketed 167 percent in the 12 months ended Feb. 28.
Boston-based State Street is one the largest managers of ETFs, with $204 billion in assets in its line of SPDR funds at the end of 2009.
(Reporting by Aaron Pressman; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn) Keywords: STATESTREET/ETF (aaron.pressman@thomsonreuters.com; 617-942-1752; reuters messaging: aaron.pressman.reuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.