Van Eck Has Plans For Egypt, Kuwait ETFs

ETF issuer Van Eck is planning to launch two new Market Vectors ETFs aimed at giving investors single-country exposure to the Middle East with an ETF for tracking Egyptian stocks and one for Kuwait's equity market. Both ETFs will be comprised of companies either based in Egypt or Kuwait, listed on exchanges in those countries or companies that derive at least 50% of their revenue from those markets. Both ETFs will trade on the NYSE and will feature about 25 stocks. Companies must have a market value of at least $150 million to be included in the ETFs, a three-month average daily trading volume of at least $1 million, and issuers of the stocks must have traded at least 250,000 shares each month over the last six months. There are several ETFs focusing on this corner of the globe, but all are thinly traded. The Market Vectors Africa ETF (NYSE: AFK) is the most liquid and that isn't saying much as AFK's average daily volume is less than 18,000 shares.