According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) revealed on 13th August that six ETFs failing to meet the listing requirements in terms of the number of investors, would be on probation, meaning that if the failure of meeting the requirements after one year, they will be forced out.
Currently, fifteen ETFs are listed at the TSE. ETFs were listed for the first time in July 2001 and experienced their first book-closing period this July. The beneficiaries (investors) of the six ETFs going on probation were short of 500, which is the required number for the listing. Delisting of the particular ETFs will be determined if the number of beneficiaries will not reach the required number at the time of the book-closing in July next year.
The introduction of ETF has been expected to absorb individual investors’ money into the stock market, and the total outstanding value of ETFs has increased to 2 trillion yen due to contribution of stocks from banks and insurance companies. However, because of the recent stock price fall, retail investors have not purchased ETFs as much as originally expected. It is rumored that in some cases, most beneficiary stocks are held by the securities firms of the same “keiretsu (business group).” Asset management companies expect that if the stock prices continue to rebound, retail inventors’ appetite for snapping up stocks will be back soon.