Including the 18 new ETFs released by Deutsche Bank last week, 76 are now listed on the LSE, including the first to give investors access to the whole of Latin America – Deutsche Bank’s MSCI Latin America ETF.

Garth Ritchie, European head of global markets equity at Deutsche Bank, said, ‘We are launching these 18 new db x-tracker ETFs because we see a great opportunity to grow the market for ETFs in the UK. Over the coming months, we plan to provide UK investors with more innovation and choice with ETFs through strategies such as short indices and asset classes like bonds and commodities.’

The LSE’s ETF offering now covers a variety of UK and global equity and bond indices. Investors can access a multicurrency trading service for ETFs and so can buy ETFs in either the local currency or the base currency of the index in question.

David Shrimpton, head of product management and development at the LSE, said, ‘This [launch] is great news for investors as it significantly increases the range of ETFs available on the London Stock Exchange. The arrival of such a large number of trackers in just one week highlights the appetite among issuers and investors for ETFs now that the stamp duty disadvantage has been removed.’

According to the LSE, the value traded in ETFs on the exchange during the first half of this year increased by 79 per cent on the first half of 2006, reaching £15.6 billion. The number of UK institutions using ETFs has grown by 58 per cent in the last two years.

See the September 2007 issue of What Investment for a full feature on ETFs.