Recent launch of DBSAM's STI ETF has been met with dismay disinterest. According to the weblink HERE, the number of shares issued were 2,411,400 at the issue price of $1.62. So this means its AUM raised was $3,906,468. This is really horrible. A few factors probably attributed to the poor response such as:

1. Extremely strong competitor from streetTracks STI which has a much larger AUM. As on 30 June 2008, its AUM was S$714.22 million. Assuming no redemption, its AUM should now be 1,594.94/2,947.54 * 714.22 =S$386.47 million.
2. The streetTracks STI has a strong following. On 20th Feb 2008, the shares traded was 1,309,000. Not bad. Interestingly, the trustee of the fund is DBS Trustee Limited which is a wholly-owned subsidary of DBS.
3. In this local region, investors are gamblers. There is no story to tell for an index fund. Investors in this region don't know how to use index fund for asset allocation.
4.  For those who uses index funds for asset allocation, there is already more than enough ETFs in overseas. With the power of internet, trading is a breeze. There is no need to have it traded "at home."
5. Instead of reinventing the wheel, DBSAM should look at what is really lacking on the SGX. For example, the FTSE STI tracks the top 30 companies by market cap. But there is no ETF that is tracking the mid cap and the small caps. Perhaps small cap might be hard due to liquidity problem but surely mid cap should be fine?

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