SIX Swiss Exchange reported a 13.7% drop in Q3 ETF trading volumes compared to Q2, with the majority of the decrease accounted for by equity ETFs, after the benchmark Swiss Market Index SMI traded sideways for much of the quarter. The year-on-year decline was a relatively modest 3.6%.

ETFs tracking the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 are set for a reshuffle following the latest quarterly review from index provider FTSE Russell. Changes to the blue-chip FTSE 100, underlying index to the £5bn iShares Core FTSE 100 UCITS ETF (ISF), will see NMC Health and Berkeley Group added at the expense of Provident Financial and Royal Mail.

Escalating tensions relating to North Korea’s increasingly prominent nuclear ambitions have caused ETFs tracking risk assets in the Asia Pacific region to fall on Monday 4 September. The market slump followed an earthquake in North Korea on the previous day, later confirmed as being triggered by a successful nuclear weapons test.

ETFs that track the performance of Brazil equities are among the top performing ETFs in Europe over the last month. Brazil equity ETFs from Lyxor, iShares, Deutsche Asset Management, HSBC and Amundi are all up over 10% in the month to 25 July 2017.

HSBC has become the 16th ETP issuer to list products on Borsa Italiana’s ETFplus platform after it cross-listed five funds on the Italian exchange.  The ETFs, which all offer broad market equity exposures, are also listed on London Stock Exchange, NYSE Euronext, Deutsche Börse and SIX.

By Oliver Smith, portfolio manager at IG Group.

Exchange-traded funds are widely regarded as excellent products for getting exposure to a wide number of asset classes, but with competing ETF providers using different indices, it can be difficult to know where to start.

Investors should avoid looking exclusively at fund fees when selecting exchange-traded funds, according to a panel of industry experts who addressed an event held by HSBC last week. The speakers explained that while choosing an ETF with a competitive fee structure is undoubtedly important, investors should not discount the tracking precision of the fund.

Mexican equity ETFs have traveled a bumpy road over the last few months thanks to political turmoil and a general performance slowdown in emerging markets. The Mexican Bolsa Index plummeted more than 8% in the ten days following the 2016 US Presidential election as investors priced in the risk of worsening US-Mexican relations under President Trump. The index returned 6% in 2016, underperforming the MSCI Emerging Markets Index return of 11%. Investors who believe the Trump risk is now fully priced in may wish to consider Mexican equity ETFs from iShares, HSBC or Deutsche Asset Management.

In the world of Donald Trump’s post-truth politics, one fact remains undisputed: Russian equity ETFs have performed well in 2016 and analysts expect this performance to continue this year. The bounce back of crude oil prices and the olive branch from the US President-elect to Russian President Vladimir Putin helped the widely-followed MICEX Index to rise 27.6% during 2016 in Russian rouble terms, compared to a fall of 6.7% in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index over the same period. European investors may gain access to Russian equities through ETFs provided by Lyxor, iShares, Deutsche Asset Management, ComStage, RBS and HSBC.

ETFs tracking South Korean equities may experience a downturn in 2017 as the domestic economy has taken a turn for the worse, the country struggles to navigate a major political scandal, and the threat from north of the border has increased. As the fourth largest economy in the Asia region, South Korea still represents an important part of a balanced portfolio, but with slower predicted growth and risk creeping up, investors may wish to consider an ETF which offers better diversification.