State Street Unveils Corporate Bond ETF  
December 18, 2009

SAN DIEGO (ETFguide.com) – State Street Global Advisors has just added the SPDR Barclays Capital Short Term Corporate Bond ETF (NYSEArca: SCPB) to its ETF lineup.

SCPB is linked to the price and yield of the Barclays Capital US 1-3 Year Corporate Bond Index, which includes corporate issues that have a remaining maturity of greater than or equal to 1 year and less than 3 years, are rated investment grade (average A2/A3 credit rating), and have $250 million or more of outstanding face value. 

“As investors look to improve the diversification of their fixed income holdings, demand for precise access to the corporate bond duration curve has increased,” said Anthony Rochte, senior managing director at State Street Global Advisors.  “The SPDR Barclays Capital Short Term Corporate Bond ETF can help investors position their portfolios for a potential increase in interest rates, as short-term corporate bonds are historically less sensitive to interest rate movements than longer term issues.”

At the end of November, there were 572 issues included in SCPB’s underlying index with an average maturity of 1.91 years. The fund’s annual expense ratio is 0.1245 percent.

State Street manages just over $9 billion in 18 bond ETFs.

In related new ETF offerings, the Global X China Energy ETF (NYSEArca: CHIE) has just debuted. The fund owns 24 stocks within the S-BOX China Energy Index. Top holdings include Petrochina, Cnooc and China Coal Energy. The fund’s annual expense ratio is 0.65%. 

FaithShares Advisors has just introduced the FaithShares Baptist Values Fund (NYSEArca: FZB) and the FaithShares Lutheran Values Fund (NYSEArca: FKL).

According to the company, each of the FaithShares ETFs uses religious screens that harmonize with each denomination’s beliefs. The funds follow customized indexes from FTSE/KLD Research and Analytics.

The company also says it will donate 10% of the net income derived from each fund back to a ministry or charity supported by that fund’s denomination.

Both funds charge annual expenses of 0.87%.