S&P 500 ETF Now Tradable At Deutsche Börse

The first exchange-traded fund (ETF) on the Standard & Poors 500 U.S. benchmark index has been tradable in Deutsche Börse's XTF segment since Friday. The iShares S&P 500 ETF is managed by Barclays Global Investors (BGI). ETFs tracking the S&P 500 index in the U.S have been very successful. The world's most heavily traded security with a monthly exchange turnover of some 90 billion euros is an ETF on the S&P 500 index.

The iShares S&P 500 is the sixth ETF on a U.S. index to be listed in the XTF segment. Investors can already trade ETFs on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Dow Jones US Large Cap, Dow Jones US Technology and MSCI USA Information Technology.

Three years since the XTF segment was launched, over half of all ETF turnover in Europe is generated in Deutsche Börse's XTF segment. XTF's European market share has increased from 45 percent to 56 percent since the beginning of this year. Currently there are 65 ETFs and 23 actively managed funds listed in the XTF segment.

Exchange-traded funds are index funds that can be traded continuously like equities on the stock exchange at the current market price. There are no loads for the purchase of fund shares through the stock exchange; all the investor has to pay are the usual transaction costs for the purchase and sale of securities. Investors can buy the shares through any bank that offers trading in equities.

Roughly 99 percent of the turnover in fund products in Germany is posted through Xetra, which means that all of the main trading parameters from equities trading are also valid for XTF. These include continuous trading, auctions, a minimum lot of one fund share as well as Designated Sponsors who provide for liquidity.