Flow Traders, a leading liquidity provider for exchange-traded funds, has floated on Euronext Amsterdam. Commenting on the listing, Sjoerd Rietberg, co-CEO of Flow Traders, said: “We are thrilled to complete our IPO with today’s listing on Euronext Amsterdam. The strong demand we have seen from investors, their high level of recognition of our innovative business model and track record and the support for our growth strategy confirm our confidence in a bright future as a listed company. We would like to welcome our new shareholders and are thankful for the trust they have placed in our company.”

Lyxor, a leading European provider of exchange-traded funds, has listed five smart beta ETFs on Deutsche Börse’s Xetra designed to capture the low-size, value, quality, low beta and momentum factors within European equities. The launch follows the announcement last month that the Paris-headquartered asset manager was collaborating with investment bank JP Morgan to develop a new suite of alternative beta products. The five factor ETFs represent the core equity risk factors which have historically explained much of the performance of diversified portfolios and, importantly, are backed by decades’ worth of empirical evidence.

Oil prices have declined recently owing to the ongoing Greek debt crisis and market instability in China. Those investors who correctly predicted the downturn could have earned a handsome return over the last week: the Boost WTI Oil 3x Short Daily ETP (3OIS), an ETP that returns three times the inverse of the Nasdaq Commodity Crude Oil ER Index, gained 43.7%. The new lower price, however, appears to be luring in bargain hunters. ETF securities saw net inflows of $49.3m last week into their long oil products as investors took advantage of lower prices to establish positions in the so-called “black gold”. Investors allocated to a range of primary oil market ETPs, including the ETFS WTI Crude Oil ETF (CRUD), the ETFS Brent 1month ETF (OILB) and the ETFS Energy ETF (AIGE).

China equity ETFs have bounced back strongly, posting sharp gains over the past two days as increased efforts by regulators to stabilise the market have seen equity prices surge. As at the time of writing, the db x-trackers Harvest CSI300 Index UCITS ETF (DR) (RQFI LN), one of the larger physical China A-share ETFs on offer in Europe, had gained 18.9% since Wednesday’s close. Forceful measures have been announced to provide liquidity, quell selling pressure and encourage stock purchases, putting an end to the equity market’s fall. These measures should work to stem redemptions from exchange-traded funds and reduce margin calls for leveraged equity owners which drove forced equity selling over June and July.

The recent referendum in Greece led to a decisive victory for the ‘No’ campaign, emboldening the Greek government in their stance against the austerity terms laid out by the so-called Troika. The two warring parties have returned to the negotiating table but both sides appear adamant that they will not be moved to a substantially different position. But despite the ongoing stalemate and severity of the situation, ETFs have largely been unfazed. Whilst the Global X FTSE Greece 20 ETF (GREK), the only pure-play Greece ETF, did open a thumping 9.7% lower on Monday, it has quickly bounced back, recovering 5.2% by the end of Tuesday and making further gains in subsequent days. It now stands above its close price before the referendum.

State Street Global Advisors (SSGA), the asset manager behind the SPDR brand of exchange-traded funds, has announced the launch of nine US sector equity ETFs on the Deutsche Börse. The funds are based on the blue-chip S&P 500 Index and cover the consumer discretionary, consumer staples, energy, financials, healthcare, industrials, materials, technology and utilities sectors. The funds provide investors with the opportunity to manage US sector exposures through different stages of the economic cycle, as well as a vehicle to tilt portfolios and gain targeted exposure to specific industries on an ad-hoc basis.

The European exchange-traded fund and exchange-traded product industry gathered more assets in the first half of 2015 than in the first half of any previous year. European flows are in keeping with the global trend of record beating ETF/ETP asset growth so far this year, with record levels of net new assets being gathered globally ($152bn) and in the US ($103bn). Among ETF providers, Vanguard gathered the largest net inflows in June with $685m, followed by Source with $362m and UBS ETFs with $303mn net inflows.

A record level of $152 billion in net new assets was gathered by exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded products listed globally in the first half of 2015, according to data from industry consultants ETFGI. The figure surpasses the prior record of $130 billion gathered in the first half of 2014. At the end of June 2015, the global ETF/ETP industry had 5,823 ETFs/ETPs, with 11,295 listings, assets of $2.971 trillion, from 259 providers listed on 62 exchanges in 51 countries. iShares gathered the largest net inflows over the period, with $52.1 billion, followed by Vanguard, WisdomTree and Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management.

S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI), one of the world’s leading providers of financial market indices and a major player in the exchange-traded funds industry, has unveiled the S&P 500 Bond Index, the first ever index tracking the debt of S&P 500 companies. The newly launched index will measure the performance of publicly traded fixed income bonds issued in the US by companies in the blue chip S&P 500. The index currently tracks the debt of 430 companies reflecting more than $3 trillion in debt outstanding and $3.8 trillion in market value.

Short and leveraged (S&L) exchange-traded products (ETPs) continue to enjoy steady growth, with assets under management (AUM) recently exceeding $63bn worldwide, according to a report from Boost ETP. The total market for S&L ETPs has risen 2% since the start of the year, led by significant inflows to leveraged long equity products and products offering short fixed income exposure. Today, S&L ETPs cover all major asset classes and geographies. As of the end of June 2015, asset allocations within S&L ETPs could be divided mainly into those tracking equities (69% or $43.2bn), debt (15% or $9.6bn) and commodities (9% or $5.8bn).