iShares has revealed that UK financial advisers continued to increase their use of ETFs on wrap platforms in Q1 2013, with the amount of iShares’ assets held on major platforms reaching £985m, an increase of 16% on Q4 2012.

Pollyanna Harper, Head of Intermediary Sales UK at iShares, said: “In the three months since the implementation of the RDR, we’re encouraged to see a steady increase in the amount of assets advisers are holding in ETFs through platforms. Advisers and investors are becoming more aware of what ETFs are and the benefits they can offer”.

Asset class performance has been very mixed so far this year with currency volatility re-awakened and softening global economic data suggesting more difficult times ahead, according to Stephen Cohen, Head of iShares EMEA Investment Strategy & Insight. So what can investors do? Cohen proposes four strategies: overweighting defensive equities and equity income; using developed market equities to access emerging markets; playing Japan via a currency-hedged solution; and mitigating interest rate risk in fixed income and looking at local currency emerging markets debt.

First Trust Advisors, a global provider of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), has rolled out its fourth actively managed ETF. Listed on the Nasdaq exchange, the First Trust Senior Loan ETF (FTSL) seeks to generate high current income and preserve capital by investing primarily in a diversified portfolio of first-lien senior floating-rate bank loans. The fund attempts to outperform both the S&P/LSTA US Leveraged Loan 100 Index and the Markit iBoxx USD Leveraged Loan Index.

Expectations of a recovery for gold are mixed, according to a survey of Barclays Stockbrokers clients. Just under a third of respondents think the value of gold will bounce back above $1,500/oz in the next six months, while more than a quarter expect it to drop below $1,300/oz. The broker also revealed that the top five traded exchange-traded commodities (ETCs) in the week following the metal’s dramatic fall were all related to precious metals, comprising three gold ETCs – led by ETF Securities’ ETFS Physical Gold (PHAU) – and two silver ETCs.

Markit, a leading provider of fixed income indices, has announced the launch of the Markit iBoxx US Non-Agency RMBS Indices, a family of cash bond indices based on a portfolio of US non-agency Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (RMBS). The new indices provide market participants with a means to assess the returns of the US non-agency RMBS market and are well suited for use a fund benchmarks and underlyings for index-linked products such as exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) has collaborated with GSO Capital Partners, the global credit business of private equity giant Blackstone, to roll out the SPDR Blackstone / GSO Senior Loan ETF (SRLN), the world’s first actively managed senior loan exchange-traded fund (ETF).

The first London-listed actively managed exchange-traded fund-of-funds, the db x-trackers SCM Multi Asset UCITS ETF (XS7M) from Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management, has reached its one-year anniversary, registering solid risk-adjusted performance. The ETF, which provides exposure to a portfolio of exchange-traded products actively managed by SCM Private, a third-party asset manager co-founded by industry veteran Alan Miller, posted a return of 7.85% with annualised volatility of 7.84% in its debut year.

Stoxx, a leading index provider, has reached its 15th anniversary. Part of the Deutsche Börse and SIX, the Zurich-headquartered firm launched its first own-branded indices on 26 February, 1998, in advance of the introduction of the euro single currency the following year. In the ensuing 15 years, Stoxx has developed from being the leading euro-focused index provider to becoming a global firm known for a range of innovative strategy indices.

FTSE Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of the London Stock Exchange Group, and TMX Group have agreed to merge their fixed income index businesses to form FTSE TMX Debt Capital Markets. The combined business will be the third largest provider of fixed income indices to exchange-traded funds (ETFs) globally, after Barclays and Markit iBoxx.

Declining bond yields have created the potential for a ‘bond bubble’ under which rising interest rates could result in significant losses for fixed income investors, according to Fitch Ratings. So how should investors handle this? One option is to get out of bonds altogether. But, considering the diversification role bonds play and the income they offer, this is not entirely sensible or indeed practicable. A more moderate response would be to focus on shorter-duration bonds, which are less sensitive to interest rate rises.