Weekly roundup: Amundi UK listing; US trading volumes hit $3trn

The ETFM roundup brings you news of some of this week's activity in the ETF and indexing market.

Amundi has listed a further eight ETFs in the UK, taking its total London offering to 41. The listing includes ETFs on single and broad emerging markets and European real estate.

Amundi has been expanding its business throughout Europe and this is the third batch of listings it has made on the London Stock Exchange, the first was in May this year.

Notional trading volumes of US ETFs and exchange-traded notes (ETNs) reached almost US$3trn last month, representing approximately 37% of all US equity trading volume, according to the National Stock Exchange.

However, assets under management (AUM) dropped from $1.1trn at the end of July to $1.064trn. Inflows saw a large fall from $13.2bn in July to just $2bn in August.

ETF Securities has continued its growth, surpassing US$30bn in assets under management at the end of August. This has been driven in part by the popularity of its gold products as investors have sought safe-havens from the volatile markets.

In August 2011, the London dollar listing of ETF Securities Physical Gold traded more than UK blue chips RBS, Next and Marks & Spencer. If it had been in the FTSE 100 Index, it would have been the 32nd most traded constituent, according to ETF Securities.

Dow Jones has licensed its indices to QuantShares to underlie seven new ETFs. This week the ETF provider listed momentum, anti-momentum, quality and size ETFs. Next week it is planning to list beta and anti-beta ETFs and one based on value.

This week, Dow Jones also announced plans to develop a US business cycle index based on Pring Research's proprietary investment strategy. The index will be designed to serve as the basis for investments such as ETFs and mutual funds.

BMO's Canadian ETF business has reached more than $3bn in AUM, having launched its ETF business in June 2009.

The Canadian ETF market is less than half the size of the US market - it had assets of US$42.8bn at the end of June according to BlackRock.

Although BMO's assets are increasing it falls far behind the market leader iShares, which has assets of $31.5bn.

S&P has launched the Global Luxury Index, which is aimed at Chinese investors. The index consists of 80 of the world's largest companies involved in the creation and distribution of luxury goods and services.