AgioFunds and its listing partner Beta Securities Poland have announced the launch of Poland’s first currency-hedged S&P 500 ETF on GPW, the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
The fund is the ninth ETF to list on GPW.
The Beta ETF S&P 500 NTR PLN Hedged (BETASPXPL PL) is the ninth ETF to list on GPW and comes with a management fee of 0.70%.
The fund uses synthetic replication to track the S&P 500 Net Total Return Index while hedging currency risk between the US dollar and Polish zloty on a regular basis.
Previously, Polish investors only had access to one locally listed S&P 500 ETF, the Lyxor S&P 500 UCITS ETF (LYPS PW) which does not mitigate exchange-rate risk between the US dollar and Polish zloty.
Robert Sochacki, Member of the Management Board of Beta Securities Poland, commented: “We are introducing a new ETF tracking a US index on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. The Beta ETF S&P 500 NTR PLN-Hedged protects investors from FX risk and tracks the index including net dividends.”
Izabela Olszewska, Member of the GPW Management Board, added: “ETFs are gaining popularity in Europe and Asia because they offer transparency and low costs and are traded on the exchange. Investors can buy and sell ETF units just like shares. The S&P 500 ETF provides exposure to 500 US large caps in all sectors. It has an embedded FX hedge, which I believe makes it safer for Polish retail investors.”
The S&P 500 is the most widely followed gauge of large-cap US equity performance. According to S&P Dow Jones Indices, there is over $11.2 trillion benchmarked to the S&P 500 with directly indexed assets comprising approximately $4.6trn of this total.
The index includes 500 leading companies and covers approximately 80% of the total available US market capitalization. Constituents are weighted by float-adjusted market capitalization.
Technology stocks make up the largest weight in the S&P 500 with a combined 27.4% contribution, while healthcare (13.1%), consumer discretionary (12.4%), financials (11.2%), and communication services (11.1%) sectors also play significant roles.
Notable positions include Apple (5.9%), Microsoft (5.3%), Amazon (3.9%), Alphabet (3.6%), Facebook (2.0%), Tesla (1.6%), Berkshire Hathaway (1.5%), and JP Morgan (1.4%).
The fund is AgioFunds’ second ETF launch this year following its Nasdaq 100 ETF, Poland’s first, last month. The Beta ETF Nasdaq-100 PLN-Hedged (BETANDXPL PW) uses synthetic replication to track the Nasdaq 100, one of the world’s preeminent large-cap growth indices, while also hedging currency risk between the US dollar and Polish zloty on a regular basis. It, too, comes with a management fee of 0.70%.