FTSE Licenses Exchange-Traded RE Index Funds

FTSE Group, a global index provider, has announced the licensing of Barclays Global Investors to create five new iShares Exchange Traded Funds that track the FTSE NAREIT U.S. Real Estate Index Series.FTSE said the new iShares funds will be the first exchange-traded funds to track real estate market subsectors in the United States. FTSE and the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts partnered in March 2006 to collaborate on domestic U.S. real estate indexing. The iShares Funds will be linked to the FTSE NAREIT Residential, Industrial/Office, Retail, Mortgage REIT, and Real Estate 50 indices. "REITs provide a transparent window for investors into the real estate asset class, and the use of the FTSE NAREIT index sectors by BGI spotlights key property types of traditional interest to investors," said Steven A. Wechsler, NAREIT's president and chief executive officer.