NeoNet, the Stockholm-based international agency brokerage for institutional investors, announced today that it has added London-listed exchange traded funds (ETFs) to its product set. NeoNet already offers execution of ETFs on the Stockholm, Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam and Helsinki exchanges.
The LSE offers 15 ETFs, including the seventh most actively traded one in Europe, the iShares FTSE 100, which had an average daily turnover of more than 10 million Euros ($10 million U.S. dollars) during the four months lasting from July to September of last year. With the addition of ETFs from the LSE, NeoNet now offers execution services for almost all of the top twenty most liquid ETFs traded in Europe.
During the first six months of 2002, assets under management of European ETFs grew by more than 50 percent to over $8 billion according to Morgan Stanley. There are now 106 ETFs in Europe, compared with 102 in the U.S.
“Over the past few years, trading of ETFs has experienced tremendous growth,” says Peter Gaffney, president of NeoNet’s U.S. operations. “With global trading operations providing direct access to all of the major pools of liquidity in Europe and the Nasdaq, NeoNet offers clients a comprehensive solution for their cross border execution needs.”
Torvald Bohlin, CEO of NeoNet, added: “As an agency brokerage focused firm, we look forward to adding new services and sources of liquidity that help our clients consolidate their trading strategies onto a single and easy-to-use platform. Through the addition of LSE traded ETFs, we will generate a significant amount of arbitrage opportunities for our clients.”
In addition to European ETFs, NeoNet enables clients to trade stocks listed on European exchanges and the Nasdaq in the U.S. through the company’s global exchange network and its international trading desk. NeoNet offers direct market access, which consolidates trading blotters for the Nasdaq, London, Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Milan, Stockholm, Helsinki, Copenhagen and Oslo stock exchanges onto a single trading screen. NeoNet plans to add electronic trading on the New York Stock Exchange to its platform, offering clients access to about 80 percent of the world’s equity market capitalization.