The maiden primary listing on BATS Global Markets (BATS) has seen modest but promising volumes on its initial day of trading.
The iShares MSCI Norway Capped Investable Market Index Fund (ENOR) traded 4,803 shares yesterday on BATS Exchange. By comparison, the established Global X FTSE Norway 30 ETF, on rival platform Nasdaq, traded 19,486 shares on the same day. The new BATS instrument is the first of nine new exchange traded funds (ETFs), sponsored by BlackRock’s iShares ETF business to list on the BATS Exchange.
The nine iShares funds are based on MSCI indices and were chosen to provide investors with the chance to access international markets. The eight other ETFs scheduled to begin trading before the end of the week are: iShares MSCI Australia Small Cap Index Fund, iShares MSCI Canada Small Cap Index Fund, iShares MSCI Denmark Capped Investable Market Index Fund, iShares MSCI Germany Small Cap Index Fund and iShares MSCI United Kingdom Small Cap Index Fund.
“Today marks an important milestone for BATS and we are pleased to welcome these new investment products from iShares, one of the leading providers of exchange-traded products, to our market,” said Joe Ratterman, chairman and CEO of BATS Global Markets. “Our goal is to attract dynamic and innovative companies to our market through our focus on market quality.”
BATS became a US primary listing venue on 2 December 2011. Two additional iShares ETFs – the iShares MSCI India Index Fund and the iShares MSCI India Small Cap Index Fund – are due to begin trading on BATS Exchange in the next few weeks.
BATS Global Markets recently acquired pan-European multilateral trading facility Chi-X Europe, in a transaction that closed in December 2011.