Africa– Van Eck Explores New Territory
July 15, 2007

SAN DIEGO - (ETFguide.com) - On Monday, Van Eck unveiled a new addition to their portfolio of ETFs, the Market Vectors – Africa Index ETF (Ticker: AFK). The Africa Index ETF seeks to track the Dow Jones Africa Titans 50 Index, a pan-African index that measures the stock performance of 50 companies that are headquartered in or generate a majority of their revenues in Africa.

Constituents have either direct or indirect exposure to the following 11 markets in Africa: Angola, DR Congo, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa and Zambia.

The index caps each country at 25% exposure upon quarterly rebalance, with top country allocations to Nigeria (25%), South Africa (25%), Egypt (13%) and Morocco(11%). Off shore-based companies also account for 25%.

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Each country’s weight is capped at 25% and weights of individual components are capped at 8% with a maximum of 15 companies for a country to be included in the index, companies must have a minimum market capitalization of $200 million and a minimum three-month average daily trading volume of $1 million. The index is calculated in US dollars and reviewed annually in June with quarterly rebalancing.

The largest sectors include financials (40%), basic materials (18%), oil & gas (13%), telecommunications (10%), industrials (8%) and technology.

While AFK is not considered a frontiers market ETF, it does provide some exposure to frontier markets. Previously Claymore launched the Claymore/BNY Frontier Markets ETF (Ticker: FRN) followed by the PowerShares MENA Frontier Countries Portfolio (PMNA).