Global X Switches Indexes for 4 Country ETFs - ETF News And Commentary

Global X – the renowned issuer of country and themed ETFs – has over 50 products targeted to fixed income, commodity producers, international and domestic markets and several alternatives. Among these, its Colombia, Norway, Argentina and Nigeria ETFs just underwent

recently (read:

).

Basically, the issuer moved to the ‘MSCI' index tracking the same country. The ticker symbols will probably remain unchanged. However, the names will not be the same, as all these will include ‘MSCI' in their titles now.

Until recently,

(GXG) was tracking the FTSE Colombia 20 Index, but will now track the MSCI All Colombia Capped Index.

(NORW), so far tracking the FTSE Norway 30 Index, will now track the MSCI Norway IMI 25/50 Index. The names of the funds will be now Global X MSCI Colombia ETF and Global X MSCI Norway ETF (read:

).

These two products – GXG and NORW – offer targeted exposure to companies in Colombia and Norway, respectively. GXG has generated over $113.8 million in AUM and moderate levels of volume, while NORW has amassed about $157.9 million in assets but trades paltry volumes. Changes took place on GXG and NORW from July 15.

Source: Global X

On the other hand, changes to ARGT and NGE will happen on August 15, 2014. Notably, ARGT and NGE are unpopular choices among investors, both having garnered about $20 million in AUM since inception.

The main change will come in the exposure profile. Apart from the Nigeria ETF, three other funds will be able to access a more spread-out portfolio (read:

).

Going by concentration risk and sectors as well as style and capitalization, there are some obvious differences between the old and new benchmarks, though the difference does not appear the same for all.

The Norway ETF will likely see a dip in the top-10 concentration while the opposite should happen for the Nigeria ETF. Apart from this, the old and new indexes are quite comparable in terms of sector and individual companies.

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