ETFplus turns one

ETFplus, Borsa Italiana’s dedicated Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) and Exchange Traded Commodities (ETC) market, turns one.

Launched in April 2007, ETFplus continues to grow, meeting with great success among investors.

At its launch, there were 108 ETFs and six issuers on ETF Plus: EasyETF, Lyxor, Deutsche Bank, iShares, Crédit Agricole and Nasdaq. The ETC segment was created in the second half of April 2007 and then, in May, the first structured ETFs were listed.

Today there are 289 instruments listed on ETFplus, including 226 ETFs, 16 structured  ETFs and 47 ETCs. Strong interest in the Italian market has attracted new international players and in the last year four new issuers have joined the market: PowerShares (which acquired Nasdaq’s ETF), JP Morgan, SPA ETF and SGAM.

Trading activity
Trading activity in ETFs has grown strongly since launch. Trades have grown from 54,000 in 2003 to 1,337,000 in 2007, an increase of 172% on 2006. The total value traded increased from Euro 1.5 billion in 2003 to Euro 31.8 billion in 2007, an increase of 182% on 2006. The total value traded between April 2, 2007 and April 2, 2008 reached Euro 36 billion, exceeding 1,380,000 trades.
During this period, the most frequently traded ETF, in terms of value, was the Lyxor ETF Dj Euro Stoxx 50, with 4.1 billion trades, followed by the iShares ETF on same index, Lyxor ’s German DAX, Lyxor’s S&P/MIB and, in fifth position, the first government bonds ETF, Lyxor’s ETF Euro Cash.
In 2007, according to FESE (the Federation of European Securities Exchanges), Borsa Italiana was the leading European exchange for electronic trading in ETFs, followed by Euronext and Deutsche Borse.
The ETF market in Italy is characterised by strong levels of participation by retail investors and the average size of ETF trades on Borsa Italiana from February 2007 to February 2008 was Euro 24,950 compared with Euro 200,000 on Deutsche Borse and Euro 102,166 on Euronext.

Asset Under Management
At the end of 2003 there were €530 million of Assets Under Management (AUM) in Italy. By  the end of 2006 this figure had reached €7,5 billion and at the end of March 2008 there were more than €10,7 billion of AUM, with a net flow of collection of €1billion in the same month.

Records
In March 2008 the ETFplus market set a new record for daily average turnover of 199.4 million Euros (the previous record was 192 million Euros, set in January 2008).
During March 2008 the average daily number of trades was 6.228, up on the average for 2007 (5.305).
The record for the average daily number of trades was set in October 2007, when 8,247 trades were completed.
The all time record for a single day was set on 21 January 2008 with 403 million Euros of turnover and 15,796 trades.
The ETC segment set a new record during March with 974 daily average trades with a daily average turnover of 8.5 million Euros.

Pietro Poletto, Head of Borsa Italiana’s ETFplus market, said: "With this market Borsa Italiana has created the ideal environment for ETFs, Structured ETFs and ETCs and has increased the possibilities of investment for both retail and institutional investors offering new instruments with different risk profiles. The positive reaction we have seen from both investors and issuers attests to the validity of Borsa Italiana’s plans to enhance and grow our market”.

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