Resource News

S&P launches new base metals index

The rebound in metal prices is bringing with it a renewed interest in investable index products tied to commodities.

Thursday, Standard & Poor’s launched the S&P/TSX Global Base Metals Index, a resource play that S&P hopes will follow on the success of its predecessors, the global mining and global gold indices.

A product launch like this would have been almost unthinkable late last year, when the global economic meltdown led to a huge crash in base metal prices. Investors lost all confidence in the sector as they liquidated their positions and braced for a long recession.

But in the past few months, the base metals have staged an unlikely recovery, fueled by growing investor confidence and renewed buying in China. S&P was getting interest from clients about a base metals index, and BetaPro Management Inc. wanted to create an exchange-traded fund that could track it. That led to Thursday’s launch…read more at the Financial Post