Exchange-traded fund provider Invesco PowerShares has announced plans to launch trading in the PowerShares MENA Frontier Counties Portfolio, designed to provide access to certain equity ma
Exchange-traded fund provider Invesco PowerShares has announced plans to launch trading in the PowerShares MENA Frontier Counties Portfolio, designed to provide access to certain equity markets in the Middle East and North Africa, on the Nasdaq Stock Market on July 9.
‘The PowerShares MENA Frontier Countries Portfolio replicates an index that takes into account foreign ownership limitations encountered when investing in certain countries in the Middle East and North Africa,’ says Bruce Bond, president and chief executive of Invesco PowerShares. ‘We believe it represents a compelling new vehicle for investors to access equity markets of the region.’
The PowerShares MENA Frontier Countries Portfolio is based on the Nasdaq OMX Middle East North Africa Index, which is designed to measure the performance of the largest and most liquid securities of companies domiciled in Middle Eastern and North African countries that have smaller economies or less developed capital markets than traditional emerging markets.
The index currently includes securities domiciled in Egypt, Morocco, Oman, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar as well as Dubai and Abu Dhabi from the United Arab Emirates.
Many of these frontier countries impose restrictions on foreign investments, including ownership limitations, which may vary from issuer to issuer. At each quarterly rebalancing and reconstitution of the index, Nasdaq OMX Group, the index provider, takes into account current foreign ownership limitations and locked-in stock. When a security in the index reaches its foreign ownership limit, it is removed from the underlying index.
Invesco PowerShares offers more than 100 US and international index-based and actively managed exchange-traded funds with assets under management of USD13.86bn at the end of April.
