BlackRock has cross-listed three iShares ETFs onto Xetra. The new listings, which are not related, are traded in euros and offer access to global small-cap equities, companies operating in the automation and robotics industry, and a broadly diversified portfolio of commodity futures contracts.
BlackRock has cross-listed three of its iShares ETFs on Xetra.
Global small-caps
The iShares MSCI World Small Cap UCITS ETF (IUSN GR) tracks the MSCI World Small Cap Index, which is currently composed of around 4,000 small-cap stocks across 23 developed market countries.
The index covers approximately 14% of the free float-adjusted market capitalisation of each country.
The index has over half its weight in the US (54.1%), which is broadly in line with global all-cap country distributions. Japan is next in line with a 13.1% weighting, followed by the UK (7.6%), Canada (3.7%) and Australia (2.8%).
The top five sectors collectively cover around 70% of the index, with industrials (17.5%), financials (14.0%), information technology (14.0%), consumer discretionary (13.9%) and health care (10.6%) all showing significant allocations. There is very little idiosyncratic (stock-specific) risk in the index with the largest constituent representing just 0.2% of the index.
The fund was first launched on London Stock Exchange (LSE) in March of this year (ticker WSML LN) and has a total expense ratio (TER) of 0.35% and assets under management of $285 million.
Automation & robotics
The iShares Automation & Robotics UCITS ETF (2B7F GR) offers exposure to stocks of companies that generate a substantial portion of their earnings from the automation and robotics industry. The fund originally launched on LSE in September 2016 under the ticker RBOT LN.
The ETF tracks the iStoxx FactSet Automation & Robotics Index, which constitutes companies that generate at least 50 percent of their annual revenue in the following categories: artificial intelligence, nanotechnology and/or production robotics.
Naturally, the index is heavily concentrated in two sectors: technology (66.4%) and industrial goods & services (30.7%). The US (30.4%) and Japan (26.2%) represent the largest country exposures, with Taiwan (13.8%), the UK (13.8%) and Korea (4.6%) also accounting for significant portions.
The fund has a TER of 0.40% and roughly $2.4 billion in AUM.
Diversified commodity portfolio
The third listing, the iShares Diversified Commodity Swap UCITS ETF (SXRS GR), offers investors access to the performance of the broad commodity market through a portfolio of futures contracts. The fund tracks the Bloomberg Commodity USD Total Return Index, the industry-standard benchmark for broad commodity exposure, covering the energy, agriculture, industrial metals, precious metals and livestock sectors.
The index employs a dynamic weighting methodology. Commodities are weighted two-thirds by liquidity and one-third by global production with a cap (15%) and floor (2%) set for any one commodity in order to enhance diversification. No sector may constitute more than 33% of the index’s weight.
The index currently has its largest weighting in the energy sector (31.2%), followed by grains (23.7%), industrial metals (16.7%) and precious metals (15.5%). The largest constituents are futures contracts in gold (12.0%), natural gas (7.9%), brent crude oil (7.7%) and sweet crude oil (7.7%).
The ETF has a TER of 0.19% and was first launched on the LSE (ICOM LN) in July 2017. The fund currently has just over $1.3bn in AUM.