The four exchange-traded funds with gold, platinum, silver and palladium as the underlying assets, which have recently been set up jointly by Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp. and Mitsubishi Corporation, have been approved for listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on July 2, 2010. These are the first ETFs backed by physical precious metals held domestically.
The ETF index prices are calculated based on the futures prices of the TOCOM precious metals market. Consequently, the listing of these ETFs is expected to stimulate arbitrage and hedge trading at TOCOM.
It is also expected that the listing of such ETFs would help strengthen the linkage between commodity and financial markets by promoting trading on the TOCOM markets. This could lead to an enhanced competitiveness of the Japanese exchanges, which fulfill an important role as a public utility, and eventually of the nation’s financial and capital markets.