Products February 6, 2009
New Columbia-based ETF Comes to Market
Global index provider FTSE Group (FTSE) has licensed GlobalX Management Company to create a new exchange traded fund based on the FTSE Colombia 20 Index.
Reported by Nevin E. Adams
According to the firm, the ETF will be the first in the United States to track the index, which represents the performance of the top 20 stocks, ranked by liquidity, then size, in one of the world’s fastest growing emerging markets.
The index meets FTSE’s stringent liquidity standards and employs a unique capping methodology to ensure regulatory compliance in the listing of financial products on US exchanges. Equities within the index are also free-float weighted to ensure that only the investable opportunity set is included, according to the announcement.
FTSE notes that, amidst global market turmoil over the course of the trailing year, ending 30 January 2009, Colombia was one of the top performing emerging markets. The FTSE Colombia 20 Index was down only 5.38% in USD total return terms over that period, as compared with the FTSE Emerging All Cap Index, which fell by 50.92%.
The FTSE Colombia 20 is heavily weighted in Oil & Gas, Banks, and Financial Services as classified by ICB supersector. The top two companies in the index are Ecopetrol SA, the largest Latin America IPO in 2007, and Bancolombia SA, the largest commercial bank in the country.