New product launches

As DWS launched the Xtrackers Biodiversity Focus SRI UCITS ETFs, we sat down with experts from Xtrackers, ISS ESG and STOXX to explore what’s driving investor interest in biodiversity strategies and how they can comprehensively integrate natural-world data and considerations into portfolios.

Mid-curve options on dividend futures give market participants a more targeted instrument, with quarterly expirations, to gain exposure on the direction of European dividend payments.

Omar Moufti, Thematics and Sectors Product strategist at BlackRock, says the transition to a low-carbon economy is just one of the forces propelling the copper and lithium industries, and explains why investing in the miners’ stocks may be an attractive long-term proposition for investors.

Eurex will launch futures on the STOXX Europe 600 SRI (Socially Responsible Investing), an index with extended exclusions as well as emissions and best-in-class ESG filters. The offering follows the successful adoption of similar contracts on the STOXX EUROPE 600 ESG-X, launched in 2019.

Daily expirations allow market participants to finetune hedging and accurately implement strategies around specific events such as economic data releases. More than 670,000 EURO STOXX 50 daily options have traded since their August listing.

The ETFs allow investors to consider the risks and opportunities presented by rising biodiversity-related liabilities. The core strategies are based on a multi-step framework designed by ISS ESG and STOXX, which not only applies screens to exclude companies that negatively impact biodiversity but also provides increased exposure to those more aligned with the preservation of the world’s natural capital.

The STOXX Global Lithium and Battery Producers index inaugurates an innovative dual identification process to selecting stocks, involving revenue and patents. As a key component in batteries, lithium is essential to the clean energy transition and the rollout of consumer electronics.

In its 25th anniversary, the EURO STOXX 50’s ecosystem continues to grow with a new fund that comes amid sustained demand for responsible investing strategies.

As the sustainability landscape continues to grow and change, there is a pressing need for evolving data that helps investors to better understand the sustainability outcomes associated with their investments. The SDI AOP has set out to address this, with continuously growing datasets updated quarterly, to assess companies’ contributions to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. James Leaton, Research Director of the SDI AOP, discusses the latest platform developments led by its asset-owner led community.

As the luxury goods industry experiences a post-pandemic boom and its companies become some of the largest in the world, a new thematic index and ETF offer investors an opportunity to track this business segment in a targeted way that would not be possible through a traditional sector strategy. The Kodex European Luxury Top 10 ETF was listed in Korea on Apr. 25 and tracks the STOXX Europe Luxury 10 index.

The index’s targeted focus allows investors to accurately capture one of the strongest-growing themes of late, as Gen Z and Asian consumers increase spending on luxury products.

Citigroup has expanded its suite of thematic structured products linked to STOXX indices that are adapted for participation products.