Products March 28, 2008

Barclays Launches Five New ETFs

Barclays Global Investors (BGI) announced the launch of five new iShares international exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
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The iShares MSCI ACWI (All Country World Index) Fund (ticker: ACWI) and MSCI ACWI ex US Index Fund (ticker: ACWX) provide broad global exposure with benchmarks that are widely used and highly regarded by institutional investors, the announcement said. The iShares MSCI Israel (EIS), Thailand (THD), and Turkey (TUR) index funds are the first ETFs to cover those markets.

According to a NASDAQ announcement, the iShares MSCI ACWI Index Fund and the iShares MSCI ACWI ex US Fund listed on the NASDAQ ETF Market, effective Friday.

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“These new products give investors exposure to a broad range of international economies, and are trading on a market designed specifically for them,” said Noel Archard, Head of iShares Product Development, in the NASDAQ announcement.

For more information about BGI’s iShares ETFs, visit http://www.ishares.com.

The Markets March 28, 2008

Mutual Funds Make a Comeback in February

The combined assets of U.S. mutual funds increased by $14.37 billion, or 0.1%, to $11.742 trillion in February, according to data from the Investment Company Institute (ICI).
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Long-term funds – stock, bond, and hybrid funds – made a comeback from January’s net outflow of $22.12 billion to post a net inflow of $27.64 billion in February, ICI said.

Investors played it safe though, as money market funds posted the highest net inflow of $92.16 billion in February. Funds offered primarily to institutions had an inflow of $70.05 billion, while funds offered primarily to individuals had an inflow of $22.11 billion.

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Bond funds had an inflow of $14.87 billion in February, compared with an inflow of $24.23 billion in January. Taxable bond funds had an inflow of $13.66 billion and municipal bond funds had an inflow of $1.21 billion for the month.

Stock funds posted an inflow of $9.51 billion in February, compared with an outflow of $44.87 billion in January. Among stock funds, world equity funds (U.S. funds that invest primarily overseas) posted an inflow of $5.89 billion, while funds that invest primarily in the U.S. had an inflow of $3.62 billion in February.

Hybrid funds posted an inflow of $3.26 billion in February, compared with an outflow of $1.48 billion in January.

The ICI data is here.

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