KUALA LUMPUR – Affin Hwang Asset Management Berhad (“Affin Hwang AM” or “the Company”) marked a new milestone for the industry with the launch of the country’s first Leveraged and Inverse (L&I) exchange traded fund (ETF) that was successfully listed on the Main Market of Bursa Securities today.

In a strategic thrust towards bolstering its passive offerings, the Company announced the simultaneous listing of 4 ETFs on Bursa (i.e. 2 leveraged and 2 inverse ETFs) providing investors the opportunity to profit from both bull and bear market trends.

These include the TradePlus NYSE® FANG+™ Daily (2x) Leveraged Tracker, TradePlus NYSE® FANG+™ Daily (-1x) Inverse Tracker, TradePlus HSCEI Daily (2x) Leveraged Tracker, and TradePlus HSCEI Daily (-1x) Inverse Tracker. The ETFs would employ a futures-based replication strategy to provide leveraged and inverse exposure on the indices, but without the common hassle that comes with derivative trading through warrants/futures such as margining or expiry.

Benchmarked against the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index and NYSE® FANG+™ Index (“Benchmark”) respectively, the ETFs will provide investors the option to either gain a (2x) leverage or hold an inverse (-1x) position on the 2 indices. These would provide investors with the opportunity to either double their investment returns through a Leveraged ETF in up markets, as well as the opportunity to gain returns/hedge against losses by shorting the market through an Inverse ETF in down markets.

Teng Chee Wai, Managing Director of Affin Hwang AM said, “Innovation has always been a key thrust of the company to bring new product solutions and strategies for our clients to help them diversify and grow their wealth. With heightened volatility in markets today, the L&I ETFs would provide investors a tactical window to capitalise on benchmark movements by trading on market news/noise and profit from volatility. There is wealth to be made in both directions of the market.”

“We carefully handpicked the 2 indices (i.e. Hang Seng China Enterprises Index and NYSE® FANG+™ Index) for their secular and highly volatile trend which is essential for short-term trading tools like L&I ETFs. Investors can then express their market views through these instruments and employ them as building blocks in a portfolio whether as tools for trading or hedging purposes,” Teng adds.

Datuk Muhamad Umar Swift, Chief Executive Officer of Bursa Malaysia Berhad said, “Bursa Malaysia is excited to welcome the country’s first L&I ETF, following the enhancement of the ETF framework earlier this year to elevate the potential of the Malaysian ETF market. We commend Affin Hwang AM’s innovative push towards sophisticated ETF products to spur competitive growth of the industry and increase market vibrancy. With the introduction of L&I ETFs, the investing public now has a wider range of low-cost investment opportunities to diversify their portfolios with and seek investment results across different time horizons and risk profiles.”

Mr Jaekyu Bae, Executive Vice President & Chief Investment Officer of Samsung Asset Management said, “We at Samsung Asset Management are proud of our valued partner Affin Hwang AM in becoming the first issuer of L&I ETFs in Malaysia. Our joint partnership and commitment in promoting growth of the ETF market in Malaysia will continue to be strong in the future. As an ETF pioneer in the industry, Samsung Asset Management launched the first L&I ETFs in Korea and Hong Kong that has driven market vibrancy in their respective stock exchanges.”

“We believe these innovative products will attract investors’ participation from both the institutional and retail sector, as well as be a catalyst in spurring growth of other plain-vanilla ETFs. Samsung will continue to give strong support to Affin Hwang AM in advancing the ETF market in this country through more innovative collaboration,” Mr Bae continues.

With the Company’s 2 current ETF offerings (i.e. TradePlus Shariah Gold Tracker and TradePlus S&P New China Tracker) which provides exposure to Gold and China’s new economy respectively, today’s new listings would bring the Company’s total ETFs to 6, making Affin Hwang AM the largest ETF provider in Malaysia (in term of number of ETFs listed) as it continues to expand its product suite.

Units of the Funds starts trading today on Bursa Securities under the following stock code:-