Four new ETFs were announced by Barclays Canada a couple of weeks ago.
XMA and XTR provide sector exposure: Providing investors with exposure to the Canadian materials sector, XMA will replicate, to the extent possible, the performance of the S&P/TSX Capped Materials Index. XTR is designed to provide investors with exposure to the Canadian income trusts sector by replicating, to the extent possible, the performance of the S&P/TSX Income Trust Index. XMA and XTR will join Barclays Canada’s other sector iUnits funds, including energy (TSX:XEG), financials (TSX:XFN), gold (TSX:XGD), technology (TSX:XIT) and REITS (TSX:XRE) to provide investors with the ability to target investments in some of the largest and most popular Canadian equity sectors / segments.
XDV provides yield opportunities: Designed to provide investors with exposure to higher yielding, dividend paying Canadian stocks, XDV will replicate, to the extent possible, the performance of the Dow Jones Canada Select Dividend Index. XDV will focus on investing in stocks with higher yields, proven dividend growth and dividend sustainability and higher liquidity.
XRB provides inflation protection: To provide fixed income investors with an inflation-protected investment, XRB is designed to replicate, to the extent possible, the performance of the Scotia Capital Real Return Bond Index.
I am personally going to be staying away from the income trust fund (I don’t know enough about the quality of the trusts in the S&P/TSX Income Trust Index).
I Googled for “Dow Jones Canada Select Dividend Index” and apparently it was just launched on December 5, 2005. Here’s the description:
The Dow Jones Canada Select Dividend Index’s 30 components are selected from the Dow Jones Canada Total Market Index, which represents 95% of the country’s float-adjusted market capitalization. To be included in the index–which is calculated in both Canadian and U.S. dollars–stocks must have a nonnegative, historical, five-year dividend-per-share growth rate; a payout ratio of less than 80% for all companies; and daily average dollar volume of $1 million for three months prior to the annual review. Stocks that meet these criteria are then ranked in descending order by indicated annual dividend yield, and the top 30 components are selected for the index. The index is weighted by indicated annual dividend, and the weight of any
one component is capped at 10%.