Australia’s first European leading company ETF?

ANZ ETFS Management (AUS) announced today it has launched an exchange traded fund (ETF) that gives Australian investors access to Europe's leading blue-chip companies, claiming it as the first Australian ETF product of its type to do so.

According to the company, ANZ ETFs EURO STOXX 50 ETF was designed to capture the returns of Europe's leading blue-chip index, the EURO STOXX 50 index.

The ETF provider said it was also the first time that the global index provider, STOXX would be available on the ASX.

It's scheduled to go live on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) later this month.

The index covered 50 of the largest stocks from 12 difference counties in the Eurozone, including France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain and excluded the UK, said AUS.

ANZ ETFs head, Kris Walesby, said, the product would prove to be popular both with retail and institutional investors who were looking to expand their overseas investment horizons beyond the US and China.

"It offered cost-effective access to the Eurozone's leading companies and pure Euro exposure through an internationally recognised bench market," Walesby said.

STOXX, chief executive officer, Matteo Andreetto, said, the EURO STOXX 50 gave investors access to blue-chip companies that included Bayer, Unilever and Daimler.