Barclays Global Investors Launches Japan iShares By IndexFunds.com Staff August 29, 2001

Trading of the iShares S&P/TOPIX 150 began today on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The new exchange-traded fund has an expense ratio of 0.30%.

The S&P/TOPIX 150 index was developed jointly by Standard & Poor's (S&P) and the Tokyo Stock exchange in 1999. The broad index covers about 70% of the float-adjusted market capitalization of Japan's equity market. The S&P/TOPIX 150 is the first Japanese index to be adjusted for free-float and calculated in real time, and captures all 10 economic sectors within the S&P/MSCI Global Index Classification Standard (GICS).

The table below lists the ETFs that are currently trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The Sun Rises on ETFs
ETF name	Expense ratio	Fund administrator	Launch date
Daiwa ETF-TOPIX	0.23%	Daiwa Asset Management	7/13/2001
TOPIX ETF	0.24%	Nomura Asset Management	7/13/2001
Nikkei Exchange Traded Index Fund 225	0.225%	Nikko Asset Management	7/13/2001
iShares TOPIX	0.30%	Barclays Global Investors	7/22/2001
iShares S&P/TOPIX 150	0.30%	Barclays Global Investors	7/29/2001

Source: Tokyo Stock Exchange

According to the Tokyo Stock Exchange, a Barclays iShares ETF hitched to the Nikkei 225 index will be launched on September 5. Additionally, Japan's Financial Services Agency previously approved the Nikkei 300 index for use as the basis of an ETF.

No Small Rebalancing

Index provider Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) said it will announce the rebalancing for its small cap country indexes on September 4. The changes will reflect MSCI's decision to move to free float-adjusted equity indexes.

MSCI says the eligibility range for companies in the small cap indexes will increase from $200 million-$800 million to $200 million-$1.5 billion. Also, the new MSCI Greece small cap index will be added to the MSCI small cap index series. Previously, Greece was classified as an emerging market.

MSCI will institute the changes in one fell swoop after the close of trading on September 28.