NYSE Euronext Welcomes 13 Commodity Themed ETFs To The Amsterdam Market

NYSE Euronext is pleased to announce that ETF Securities has listed its first exchange traded funds (ETFs) on Euronext Amsterdam. These new ETFs offer access to some of the most important investment themes in world financial markets, such as Water, Coal, Steel, Shipping, Alternative Energy and Nuclear.

ETF Securities has chosen to enter the European ETF market on the back of strong client demand for investment themes that have not been possible to implement using Exchange Traded Commodities. Sectors such as Water, Coal, Steel, Shipping, Alternative Energy and Nuclear are not available in ETC format due to the challenges faced with owning the underlying assets.

ETF Securities will also offer two new products based on the U.S. large-cap Russell 1000® Index and U.S. small-cap Russell 2000® Index to European investors. These benchmarks are part of a comprehensive family of widely-used indexes that together serve as benchmarks for more than U.S.$4.4 trillion.

The ETF segment continues to grow and is increasingly successful on all the European and US NYSE Euronext markets. A daily average turnover of €365 million was traded on NextTrack in 2008, (NextTrack is Euronext’s dedicated segment for ETFs/Trackers) an increase of 17% compared with the daily average in 2007 of €313 million.

Joost van der Does de Willebois, CEO of Euronext Amsterdam and Member of NYSE Euronext Management Committee, said “We are pleased that ETF Securities has chosen Euronext Amsterdam as their main listing venue. This shows the success of our NextTrack segment”.

Graham Tuckwell, Chairman of ETF Securities, said: “ETF Securities is extremely proud to be able to offer this exciting platform of 13 new equity ETFs to European investors. This broadens the asset classes to include equities and underlying commodity exposures.

“The decision to launch equity ETFs on thematic sectors has come largely from our clients who have consistently asked ETF Securities to provide them with more investment opportunities, particularly themes or sectors they are currently unable to access through ETCs.”

Pedro Fernandes, NYSE Euronext Head of Trackers and ETF Development Europe, added: “ETFs give investors easy, transparent and cost efficient access to new asset classes.“

The 13 new equity ETFs are: