Global mining and banking ETFs hit market

Australian exchange traded fund (ETF) provider, BetaShares, has launched two new ETFs that track the global mining and global banking sectors.

BetaShares said both ETFs were currency hedged and would be the first of their kinds in Australia.

BetaShares Global Gold Miners ETF — currency hedged (ASX: MNRS) and BetaShares Global Banks ETF — currency hedged (ASX: BNKS), were hedged to Australian dollars as that would eliminate the impact of currency fluctuations on portfolio performance.

MNRS aimed to track an index of 40 of the largest global gold miners (ex-Australia), as that had a combined market cap of $308 billion, far more when compared to the value of the gold miners in Australia ($25 billion).

Investors could obtain exposure to global mining leaders, but had less currency risk as the ETF was hedged to currency movements, the fund manager said.

BNKS aimed to track an index that included 60 of the largest global banks (ex-Australia), which included JP Morgan Chase, Well Fargo, and HSBC.

BetaShares managing director, Alex Vynokur, said Australian investors could diversify their banking exposure to an international scale, and that would reduce Australian country-specific risk in general, and risk associated with the Australian housing sector.

"By global stands, Australian banks appeared relatively expensive on some valuations measures and are quite exposed to the fortunes of the local house sector," he said.