Despite growing market volatility and the fallout from the US sub-prime crisis, Latin American stock markets remain hugely profitable after a three-year bull run. Investors worldwide are keen to get a piece of the action. With plans for regional stock exchanges and cross-border trading still at the draft stage, investors are turning to exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to get exposure to such equity markets as Brazils Bovespa and Mexicos IPC index and tap into high-yielding shares.
Spains second-largest bank, BBVA, has been the latest to move into ETFs for Latin America, teaming up with the FTSE group to launch two new funds, the FTSE Latibex Top ETF and FTSE Latibex Brasil ETF on the Madrid stock exchange in late July, offering the option of investing in Brazilian, Mexico and Chilean shares.
Lyxor Asset Management, a subsidiary of Société Générale, has issued its Lyxor ETF Brazil...