New Emerging Market Funds Aim for Hot Spot

Over the past two weeks, eight emerging market ETFs have been introduced.

Lisle, IL-based Claymore Securities has just debuted the Claymore China Technology ETF (NYSEArca:CQQQ). The fund contains 34 holdings with exposure to large cap (19%), mid cap (33%) and small cap (48%) stocks. The AlphaShares China Technology Index serves as the fund’s underlying benchmark and the index is rebalanced semi-annually. CQQQ has an annual expense ratio of 0.70%.

Old Mutual Global introduced GlobalShares FTSE Emerging Markets Index Fund (NYSEArca: GSR). In its attempt to attract assets, the company won’t charge expenses to shareholders through January 21, 2010. Thereafter, GSR’s annual expense ratio will be 0.39%. The fund is benchmarked to the FTSE Emerging Markets Index and it contains around 300 holdings.

Last week Direxion Shares added four leveraged ETFs with market exposure to Chinese and Latin American stocks.

The Direxion Daily China Bull 3x Shares (NYSEArca: CZM) and the Direxion Daily Latin America 3x Bull Shares (NYSEArca: LBJ) attempt to triple the daily performance of their underlying benchmarks. In contrast, the Direxion Daily China Bear 3x Shares (NYSEArca: CZI) and the Direxion Daily Latin America 3x Bear Shares (NYSEArca: LHB) aim for three times opposite daily performance of their respective indexes.

“The emerging markets sector is increasingly tradeable in today’s evolving global investment landscape,” stated Dan O’Neill, Direxion Shares’ President. “Our Latin America mutual fund has been our largest mutual fund for some time, and our Daily Emerging Markets 3x ETFs have experienced heavier average volume recently. Tremendous trading opportunities appear to be underway in this space.”

The new Direxion ETFs will charge annual expenses between 0.94 to 0.95%.

In related news, Global X Funds introduced two Chinese sector funds. The Global X China Consumer ETF (NYSEArca: CHIQ) and the Global X China Industrials ETF (NYSEArca: CHII) are linked to publicly traded companies in narrow industries within China’s developing economy. Both funds follow indexes created by Structured Solutions AG and charge annual expenses of 0.65%.