Trio of Emerging Markets Small-Cap ETFs Debut Today

BlackRock's BLK iShares and State Street's STT State Street Global Advisors are starting the new year off by adding to their emerging markets ETF lineups as the two largest ETF issuers will introduce a combined three new small-cap ETFs tracking emerging markets today. The The SPDR S&P Small Cap Emerging Asia Pacific ETF GMFS will track the S&P Asia Pacific Emerging Under USD 2 Billion Index, which has included allocations to China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand. The index was home to 1,321 securities at the end of May. To be included in the Index, a publicly listed company must have a total market capitalization between $100 million and $2 billion. State Street has also filed plans to introduce the SPDR S&P Small Cap Emerging Middle East & Africa ETF, SPDR S&P Small Cap Emerging Europe ETF and SPDR S&P Small Cap Emerging Latin America ETF. BlackRock's iShares will introduce the iShares MSCI Hong Kong Small Cap Index Fund EWHS and the iShares MSCI Singapore Small Cap Index Fund EWSS today. Both ETFs will have expense ratios of 0.59%. The iShares MSCI Singapore Small Cap Index Fund is the first Singapore-specific, but the Hong Kong offering will seek to be successful where a rival issuer failed. EWHS will track an index that is comprised of 125 securities while EWSS will follow an index of 88 companies. iShares will also unveil the iShares MSCI World Index Fund” URTH today. URTH will have an expense ratio of 0.24% and track an index of 1,635 companies. Constituent countries in the index includeAustralia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.