Pimco, Grail Advisors and Old Mutual Debut ETFs

Commentary February 24, 2010 at 07:00 PM

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Old Mutual Global Index Trackers, a South Africa-based fund manager has just debuted its second U.S. listed ETF, the GlobalShares FTSE Developed Countries ex-US Fund (GSD).

GSD offers market exposure to 23 developed countries, including Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, France and Germany without overlapping their US stock portfolios. The ETF is benchmarked to the FTSE Developed ex-US Index, which is comprised of over 1,400 stocks.

In addition, three newly introduced actively managed bond ETFs will compete in the growing ETF marketplace.

Grail Advisors has just launched the Grail McDonnell Intermediate Municipal Bond ETF (GMMB) and the Grail McDonnell Core Taxable Bond ETF (GMTB). The new Grail McDonnell bond ETFs allow the portfolio managers unrestricted trading, but with transparency of holdings and intraday liquidity for investors.

According the company's website, GSD's annual net expense ratio after fee waivers is 0.35 percent.

And PIMCO has rolled out the PIMCO Short Term Municipal Bond Strategy Fund (SMMU).

The PIMCO muni-bond ETF holds short term top rated municipal bonds and is benchmarked against the Barclays Capital 1-3 Year Municipal Bond Index. The fund's annual expense ratio is 0.35 percent and the fund pays monthly income.

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