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.