By David Stevenson – The China bears are rampant. In the space of just a few years, the ‘next great superpower’ has gone from hero to zero. If we track asset flows, China is about as unpopular as you can possibly get.

As a consequence, Chinese equities are now ludicrously cheap despite impressive earnings growth and healthy dividends. Fortunes could be about to change, however, as index providers such as MSCI consider the inclusion of China A shares in major global indices.

Just over a year since formally joining forces, index providers Barclays and MSCI have rolled out the Barclays MSCI ESG Fixed Income Indices, a family of fixed income indices based on environmental, social & governance (ESG) factors. The indices, co-branded Barclays MSCI, combine Barclays’ experience in fixed income indices with MSCI’s strength in ESG analytics and represent the first time ESG considerations have been systematically integrated into bond indices.

Vanguard has announced the cross-listing of four Irish-domiciled exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on the SIX Swiss Exchange. Following the listing, a total of seven Vanguard ETFs are now available on the exchange. Axel Lomholt, head of international product development and management at Vanguard, commented: “Continuing to list our ETFs on the SIX Exchange underscores our commitment to the Swiss market and the European market more broadly. Making our ETFs more readily available across Europe gives more investors a low-cost way to reach their investment goals.”

The US market for exchange-traded funds (ETFs) will likely grow to more than $3.5 trillion in assets over the next five years, according to a new industry projection by iShares, the ETF business of BlackRock. Commenting, Mark Wiedman, Global Head of iShares, said: “In the last decade, ETFs have evolved from obscurity to a $2+ trillion industry, embraced by retail and institutional investors alike. But these are still early days in ETF adoption. Even in the most mature market, the US, there is an incredibly bright future.”

Boost ETP, a London-based provider of short and leveraged exchange-traded products (ETPs), has signed up Morgan Stanley as a new Authorised Participant (AP). Morgan Stanley becomes Boost’s sixth AP, alongside ABN Amro, BNP Paribas, Flow Traders, UBS and Virtu Financial. APs undertake the responsibility of creating and redeeming units in an ETP in the primary market. Theoretically, a greater number of APs should lead to increased liquidity and tighter pricing.

Nasdaq OMX Global Indexes and Accretive Asset Management have formed a new partnership to promote and develop the BulletShares range of target-maturity corporate bond indices. The indices, which have been co-branded Nasdaq BulletShares Indexes, currently have more than $2.5 billion in exchange-traded fund (ETF) assets linked to them.

UBS Global Asset Management has launched a new exchange-traded fund (ETF) on the London Stock Exchange. The fund, the UBS-ETF CMCI Composite, offers diversified exposure to the commodities asset class via a widely diversified and dynamic commodities index. Based on the UBS Bloomberg Constant Maturity Commodity Index (CMCI) Composite, an index developed by UBS in cooperation with Bloomberg, the fund delivers access to 28 commodity futures contracts covering the energy, industrial metals, precious metals, agriculture and livestock sectors.

Source has added GBP trading lines to four London-listed US sector exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The move simplifies access for sterling-based investors and comes at a time when ETFs are fast gaining in popularity among all types of investors in the UK. Ted Hood, CEO of Source, said: “ETFs are now attracting a wider group of investors in the UK. We are keen to offer access to key markets and interesting investment themes and opportunities in sterling, thereby avoiding the need for separate FX transactions.”

WisdomTree, a leading provider of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), has listed an additional 12 ETFs on the Mexican stock exchange, the Bolsa Mexicana de Valores (BMV). All 12 equity ETFs are listed in the special international section of the BMV, the Sistema Internacional de Cotizaciones (SIC).

By David Stevenson – I am, I freely admit, something of an energy bore. In various columns, I’ve been banging on for what seems like an eternity about my structural bias towards the energy sector and, in particular, the energy infrastructure niche. So, given this tireless campaigning for energy-focused ETFs and funds, it won’t come as a great surprise to readers that I think that Source has done us all an enormous favour by listing Europe’s first MLP ETF.