Russell Investments, a leading investment manager and index provider, has announced the launch of the Russell UK Mid 150 Index, an index providing a highly tradable representation of the UK mid-cap market. The index has been designed in response to specific sell-side demand for exposure to the UK mid-cap market that can be traded with high efficiency, and can be used as the basis for index-linked investment products such as swaps, futures and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Commodities look set to underperform developed market equities for the third consecutive year in 2013. However, ETF Securities, a leading provider of exchange-traded commodities, argues that 2014 will be a turnaround year for this laggard asset class. Nicholas Brooks, Head of Research and Investment Strategy at ETF Securities, says: “Healthy demand growth in the US and China, disappointments to current highly optimistic supply forecasts for a number of key commodities, and continued ample global liquidity should support commodity prices in 2014”.

MTS, one of Europe’s largest electronic fixed income trading venues, is to launch request-for-quote (RFQ) trading for exchange-traded funds (ETFs) via its multi-dealer-to-client MTS BondVision platform. The new service will offer liquidity providers access to a diverse community of global institutional investors and will support ETF products listed on the Borsa Italiana and London Stock Exchange. ETF issuers available via platform will include Amundi, db X-trackers, ETF Securities, iShares, Lyxor, Ossiam, PowerShares, RBS, Source, SPDR and UBS.

Cambria Investment Management, a California-based investment adviser, has announced the launch of its third exchange-traded fund, the Cambria Foreign Shareholder Yield ETF (FYLD). Listed on the NYSE Arca, the fund is linked to the Cambria Foreign Shareholder Yield Index, an index consisting of 100 non-US developed market stocks offering a high shareholder yield.

MSCI, a leading global index provider and a major supplier of indices to exchange-traded funds (ETFs), has announced the launch of the MSCI Multi-Factor Indexes, a suite of indices designed to offer institutional investors a basis for passively implementing index-linked multi-factor strategies. Alain Dubois, Head of Index Product Development for MSCI, said: “MSCI is the first index provider to give institutional investors tools that provide an easy way to analyze and adjust their allocations among factor indexes when their views of the market change.”

FinEx ETF, a division of international investment manager FinEx Group and a leading provider of exchange-traded funds to the Russian market, has introduced a US dollar share class for its Russian corporate Eurobond ETF. Listed on the Moscow Exchange, the FinEx Tradable Russian Corporate Bonds UCITS ETF (FXRU) tracks the Barclays EM Tradable Russian Corporate Bond Index, providing dollar-based investors with access to shorter maturity liquid bonds issued by Russian non-sovereign issuers.