MARKET NEWS
ETF SECURITIES’ AUM SOAR
Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) provider ETF Securities has seen its assets under management (AUM) soar to $20bn as of 17 June, up 70 per cent on July 2009. Its holdings in Europe for its gold exchange-traded products have now surpassed a record $10bn, which is the largest in Europe. Its physical gold ETF has $5.2bn AUM while its Gold Bullion Securities ETF has $4.8bn of assets. The company said that this reflected European investors’ growing demand for hard assets as they look to reduce their exposure to counterparty and currency depreciation rates.
FSA BOOSTS ETF PROFILE IN UK
Use of ETFs in the UK is likely to get a boost from new FSA regulations encouraging financial advisers to take a closer look at the product, according to the first-ever survey of the UK ETF market, conducted by BlackRock. The report says that advisers are likely to increase their use of ETFs because the product is particularly well-aligned with the intent of the FSA’s Retail Distribution Review proposals. AUM in UK-listed exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have doubled since 2008 – at the end of March, assets totalled $49.8bn in 239 distinct ETFs.
GFT REPORTS LONDON GROWTH
Online spread betting and derivatives firm GFT has released its 2009 results for its London subsidiary. The privately held company announced that income rose to $50m in 2009 and customer trading in spread bets rose by 49 per cent, with contracts for difference volumes more than doubling over the year. To keep up with its growth in business the company has also seen staff levels increase by more than 400 per cent since it launched in the UK in 2006. On top of this, its outlook for 2010 was also good and is expected to top last year.