OREANDA-NEWS. June 7, 2012. The financial volume accumulated this year by ETFs (investment funds in indices whose shares are traded on BM&FBOVESPA like stocks and which are accessible to all investors) has already surpassed by 5.78% the total traded over all of 2011. From January to May the ETF trading volume was BRL 12.8 billion, in 401,117 transactions. In 2011 there were 577,723  transactions and a financial volume of BRL 12.1 billion.

There are currently 13 ETFs traded on BM&FBOVESPA and in May they obtained a financial volume of BRL 4.02 billion in 128,355 transactions, a volume three times higher than that of January (BRL 1.4 billion). The BOVA11 ETF fund, which tracks the performance of the Ibovespa, had a financial volume of BRL 3.9 billion in the month, with 124.638 transactions. The second most traded ETF was PIBB11 which tracks the IBrX-50, with 2,217 trades and a financial volume of BRL 43.5 million. In April, the 12 ETFs traded on BM&FBOVESPA totaled 73,632 transactions and a financial volume of BRL 2.69 billion.

An investor that buys a unit in an ETF is making a simultaneous investment in a share portfolio composed of companies in different sectors of the Brazilian economy, without having the buy the separate shares of the respective index. Generally speaking, round lots are made up of 10 units with a management fee of under 0.75% and require an initial minimum investment that ranges from BRL 200 to BRL 1,000 (depending on the ETF that the investor selects), plus brokerage and custody fees.