The Dow Jones-AIG Grains Sub-Index has been licensed to Canada’s Horizons BetaPro Funds to underlie two leveraged commodity exchange-traded funds, the Horizons BetaPro DJ-AIG Agricultural
The Dow Jones-AIG Grains Sub-Index has been licensed to Canada’s Horizons BetaPro Funds to underlie two leveraged commodity exchange-traded funds, the Horizons BetaPro DJ-AIG Agricultural Grains Bull Plus ETF and Horizons BetaPro DJ-AIG Agricultural Bear Plus ETF, launched earlier this month on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
The launch of the funds marks the first time that Dow Jones-AIG Grains Sub-Index has been licensed as the basis of Canadian ETFs.
‘Commodities continue to be a popular choice among market participants seeking to gain exposure to alternative asset classes,’ says Michael A. Petronella, president of Dow Jones Indexes.
‘Since the launch of the diversified Dow Jones-AIG Commodity Index, we’ve expanded the line-up to include single commodity and sector indexes, which provide specific views of the commodity futures markets. The Dow Jones-AIG Grains Sub-Index is an ideal benchmark for the performance of the corn, soybeans and wheat futures markets.’
Launched in 1998, the Dow Jones-AIG Commodity Index is composed of futures contracts on 19 physical commodities. At the end of 2008, an estimated USD42bn in assets were tracking the index, out of a total of about USD155bn tracking commodities using long-only index strategies. The grains sub-index delivered a return of 62.5 per cent over the 12 months to March 11.
Best known for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Dow Jones Indexes is also co-owner of the Dow Jones Stoxx indices and together with Wilshire Associates it provides the Dow Jones Wilshire Global Index family, which is anchored by the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 and covers more than 12,000 securities in 59 markets. Dow Jones Indexes also maintains various alternative indices, including measures of the hedge fund and commodity markets.
BetaPro, which manages more than CAD600m in exchange-traded and mutual fund assets, is a subsidiary of Jovian, a Toronto-listed management and holding company with interests in a variety of financial service firms specialising in wealth and asset management. The Jovian group as a whole had some CAD5.4bn in assets under management and CAD9.2bn in assets under administration at the end of November last year.
