May A Busy Month For ETF Issuers

May was another busy month ETF issuers as 39 new exchange traded products made their debuts during the month. That's below the 43 that rolled out in April, according to ETFdb.com, but 82 new ETPs in two months is still a robust total. Russell Investments made its foray into the ETF business a big one by introducing 16 new funds, easily the largest total of any issuer. Among the new Russell offerings are the Growth at a Reasonable Price ETF GRPC, the Russell 1000 High Beta ETF HBTA and the Russell Consistent Growth ETF CONG. Global X, the New York-based ETF issuer with $1.8 billion in assets under management, was no slouch either, rolling out six new funds. The firm continued its tradition of unique offerings by introducing the first Mexico-specific small-cap ETF, the Global X Mexico Small-Cap ETF MEXS along with the Global X Canada Preferred ETF CNPF, the first ETF devoted to Canadian preferred stocks, and the Global X Fishing Industry ETF FISN, the first ETF devoted to the global fishing business. Thus far in 2010, Global X has roughly doubled its ETF lineup. First Trust, another voracious issuer of new ETFs and the fastest growing among the 10 largest U.S. ETF sponsors, introduced the First Trust Nasdaq Global Auto Index Fund CARZ, the first ETF focusing on the auto industry, and the First Trust Mega Cap AlphaDEX Index Fund FMK. iShares, the largest U.S. ETF issuer, PowerShares and IndexIQ each introduced two new ETFs while Direxion expanded its leveraged and inverse lineup by four by adding the Direxion Daily Russia Bull 3x Shares RUSL, the Direxion Daily Russia 3x Bear Shares RUSS, the Direxion Daily Agribusiness 3x Bull Shares COWL and the Direxion Daily Agribusiness 3x Bear Shares COWS. Van Eck's Market Vectors ETF unit introduced the Market Vectors LatAm Aggregate Bond ETF BONO, a fixed income play offering exposure to fast growing Latin America markets such as Brazil, Colombia and Argentina. The firm also filed plans for the first Mongolia-specific ETF, though there is no release date set for that fund as of yet. The Barclays ETN+ Short D Leveraged Inverse S&P 500 TR ETN BXDD was the lone ETF closure in May and remains the lone shuttered fund in 2011, but on Tuesday, the last day of May, FaithShares announced it will close four of its faith-based ETFs in July.