iShares, the ETF platform of BlackRock, has announced it has listed an additional four ETFs on Xetra, part of Deutsche Börse, expanding both its commodities offering with the iShares S&P Commodity Producers Agribusiness ETF, the iShares S&P Commodity Producers Oil & Gas ETF and the iShares S&P Commodity Producers Gold ETF, and it’s global equity offering with the iShares MSCI ACWI ETF, providing investors access to 24 developed and 21 emerging markets.

iShares has listed an additional four ETFs on Xetra, covering global equities and commodities.

“To date, there are only a few physically-backed ETFs that offer access to commodity markets.  iShares’ new commodity ETFs, however, provide direct exposure to a range of companies in the agriculture, oil and gas and gold production markets,” commented Michael Gruener, head of iShares sales for Germany, Austria and Eastern Europe.  “Our new funds have been designed to provide investors an investment vehicle into commodities in a way that meets our core values of transparency, liquidity and trading flexibility.”

Commodity related Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) continue to generate significant interest, with European inflows reaching $1.2bn year to date and assets under management totalling ETP $70bn.  The TER of the three iShares commodity ETFs is 0.55% pa each.  The funds invest in companies globally that operate in the commodities exploration, production and operations markets.

The iShares MSCI ACWI (All Country World Index) ETF aims to track the global equity market.  The fund is optimised, holding over 700 stocks as subset of the index constituents.  The largest holdings currently each account for less than 2% of the portfolio, ensuring a broad diversification.  The fund’s TER is 0.60% pa.

Unlike the popular MSCI World Index, the MSCI ACWI Index not only covers developed markets, but also includes emerging markets.  Gruener added: “Given the index is free float market capitalisation weighted, the weight of emerging countries in the index will rise if their market capitalisation increases.  The iShares MSCI ACWI thus provides investors with an efficient way to reflect the increasing importance of emerging markets in their portfolios.”