Capital Group launches global corporate bond fund
US-based asset manager Capital Group launched a global corporate bond fund on February 22.
The Capital Group Global Corporate Bond Fund is a Luxembourg-domiciled Undertakings for the Collective Investment of Transferable Securities (UCITS) fund. It adopts a fundamental, research-driven, well-diversified and quality-orientated approach to corporate bond investing.
Capital Group says the offering is part of the company’s multi-year strategy to give clients based in Europe and Asia, among others, access to the company’s long-standing US strategies.
Solactive rolls out industrial robotics and automation index
Frankfurt-headquartered index provider Solactive introduced the Solactive Industrial Robotics & Automation Index on February 22. This is a thematic index tracking companies providing robotics and automation solutions in an industrial context.
The index holds globally listed companies with a minimum market capitalisation of US$1 billion operating in sectors such as factory automation equipment, semiconductors, industrial machine parts, and programmable logic devices.
Only select companies with positive one-year returns are included in the benchmark. In this way, the composition is tilted towards companies whose success in these areas is corroborated by their stock’s performance over the previous 12 months.
The new index offers investors the opportunity to capitalise on the digitisation trends affecting world economies, with a specific focus on the ongoing changes in the manufacturing and industrial sectors.
The International Federation of Robotics has found that robotic density is rising globally in manufacturing industries. According to ABI Research, industrial robotic sales will triple by 2025, reaching estimated annual revenue of about $45 billion.
CFETS, NEX announce next-gen trading platform for Chinese FX market
Financial technology firm NEX announced on February 26 that it has partnered with China Foreign Exchange Trade System (CFETS), China’s interbank market trading platform and infrastructure provider, to launch CFETS FX2017 (FX2017), a next-generation trading platform for the Chinese foreign exchange (FX) market.
Having selected NEX to deliver the underlying technology for the new services in June 2016, CFETS launched the first phase of FX2017 with a central limit order book (CLOB) platform for spot onshore Chinese renminbi on December 4, 2017.
CFETS went live with phase two of FX2017 on February 5, launching a next generation relationship-based platform for renminbi trading of spot, forwards and swaps. Through this disclosed, bi-lateral trading model, liquidity consumers (LCs) can choose from a full range of bank and non-bank liquidity providers (LPs) to access tailored executable streaming prices.
On the first day of trading, 480 institutions logged on to the new platform with 307 institutions conducting deals. Inter-bank FX market turnover was US$62.8 billion. The average daily volume in the first week of trading was consistently high, and the new platform remained robust and stable.
The launch of FX2017 is significant as it supports the expansion and evolution of the domestic renminbi market. The next-generation technology offers a multi-execution, low-latency environment that will encourage a sustainable and healthy ecosystem for its participants.
Malaysia’s i-VCAP Management introduces new ETF
Malaysian fund manager i-VCAP Management (iVCAP), a specialist in shariah-compliant investment products, listed a new exchange-traded fund (ETF) – the MyETF Dow Jones US Titans 50 (MyETF-US50) – on the local stock exchange on February 28.
The fund aims to closely track the Dow Jones Islamic Market US Titans 50 Index.
Institutional and retail investors subscribed for a total 11.84 million units of the ETF at US$1 per unit during the initial offer period, which ended on February 9. The fund has an initial approved size of up to 500 million units.
Khairi Shahrin Arief Baki, the chief executive officer of iVCAP, said he was “encouraged” by the response from institutional and retail investors. He expects more institutional investors to come on board this year.
"For the ETF, we can still do the creation of units post-initial public offer period. Most institutional investors are still waiting for the right time to come in," Mr. Khairi said at a press conference after the listing.
According to Mr. Khairi, the fund provides a “unique opportunity” for investors to "access the US market via shariah-compliant blue chips”. Companies tracked by the underlying index include Alphabet Inc, Apple Inc, Facebook Inc, Intel Inc and Microsoft Corp.
The MyETF-US50 units rose to a high of $1.005 and also closed at that price on its first day of trading.