HSBC launches MSCI Japan ETF

HSBC is to launch the HSBC MSCI Japan ETF on 24 March 2010, offering investors exposure to the total return performance of large and mid cap Japanese equities.

The fund will initially be listed on the London Stock Exchange, with further listings throughout Europe planned in coming months. The Total Expense Ratio of the HSBC MSCI Japan ETF is 0.40%.

The HSBC MSCI Japan ETF (Bloomberg ticker: HMJP) is within a range of ETFs that HSBC plans to launch in Europe. HSBC announced its entry into the European ETF market in August 2009 with the launch of the HSBC FTSE 100 ETF. Since then, HSBC has launched the Dow Jones EUROSTOXX 50 ETF and CAC 40 ETF.

As with the ETFs already launched by HSBC, the HSBC MSCI Japan ETF will fully replicate the index by holding all the index constituents within the portfolio.

Farley Thomas, Head of ETFs at HSBC said: "Our latest ETF is a low-cost route to accessing the Japanese equity market compared not only with actively managed funds but also compared to other ETFs available in Europe. In terms of demand, Japanese equity funds have seen over 10 weeks of consecutive inflows, the strongest start to the year for the Japanese equity fund sector globally since 2006 (1). There are also significant assets already invested, for example, £6.7bn is currently held in Japanese equity funds by UK investors alone (2). We believe ETFs and index funds in general will take a bigger share of such flows and assets over the next few years."