BNP Paribas Issued First ETFs on DJ CASE Egypt Index to Be Traded on Euronext Paris

Reflecting the confidence of the international investment community in the Egyptian market, despite the prevailing international financial crisis, the French BNP Paribas Bank, one of the leading international banks, has launched the first Exchange Traded Fund (ETFs) on the DJ CASE Egypt Index, which tracks the 20 blue chips of the Egyptian stock market in terms of free float adjusted market capitalization, sales and net income.

DJ CASE Egypt Index was first launched in 2006 by Dow Jones Indexes, a leading global index provider, together with the Egyptian Exchange (EGX). BNP Paribas Bank pointed out that the launched ETFs will be a tool for foreign investors to tap the Egyptian market by offering the funds certificates on a well developed exchange as Euronext Paris, and also to be traded in Euros.
 
Its worth mentioning that these ETFs are structured as open-ended mutual funds that track the movement of a certain index, however are listed and traded on the stock exchange similar to shares.

From another perspective, ETFs are also considered a tool allowing investors to gain a broad exposure to the entire stock market preventing the concentration of investment in one share, while the certificate’s holder is considered as an investor in the basket of securities that are included in the index.

Finally, the number of index funds worldwide amounted to 1137 funds, traded in more than 42 stock platforms, with assets under management reaching  USD 773.2 billion.