Van Eck Lowers Expenses On Five ETFs

Van Eck, the parent company of Market Vectors, the sixth-largest U.S. ETF issuer, announced today that it is lowering the expense ratios on five of its ETFs effective May 1. The ETFs that will see lower fees are the Market Vectors Africa Index ETF AFK, the Market Vectors Brazil Small-Cap ETF BRF, the Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF GDXJ, the Market Vectors RVE Hard Assets Producers ETF HAP and the Market Vectors Uranium+Nuclear Energy ETF NLR. AFK's fees will be reduced to 0.78% from 0.83% while BRF's fees go to 0.62% from 0.65%. GDXJ goes to 0.56% from 0.59%. HAP goes to 0.59% from 0.65% and NLR will see its fees pared to 0.6% from 0.62%. The new fees will be locked in until May 1, 2012. “We've been very pleased with the growth experienced by these funds over the course of the past year and we are happy to reduce fees for shareholders,” said Ed Lopez, marketing director at Van Eck Global. Earlier this year, Van Eck pared the expenses on the Market Vectors Indonesia ETF IDX and the Market Vectors Poland ETF PLND. Van Eck currently has 33 ETFs listed in the U.S. and $23 billion in assets under management.