Horizons BetaPro S&P 500 Index (C$ Hedged) ETF began trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Wednesday under the symbol HXS.

In September 2010, Toronto-based BetaPro Management Inc. launched the Horizons BetaPro S&P/TSX 60 Index ETF (HXT:TSX), the lowest cost ETF in Canada, tracking the S&P/TSX 60 Index. Following in HXT’s footsteps, HXS is the second ETF launched by BetaPro that will track an index already available to Canadian investors through another TSX listed index-tracking ETF.

“HXS represents another milestone for Canadian ETF investors and continues the new era of competition in the Canadian ETF industry, which we started with the launch of the Horizons BetaPro S&P/TSX 60 Index ETF.” said Howard Atkinson, president of BetaPro, in a release. “In our view, the S&P 500 Index is the most important U.S. equity benchmark and we’re offering an ETF solution designed to meet the unique tax and investment needs of Canadian investors who buy U.S. stocks.”

HXS offers a low-cost and tax efficient total return structure providing exposure to the S&P 500 Index, the premier large-cap U.S. equity index. The BetaPro S&P 500 ETF seeks to replicate, to the extent possible, the performance of the S&P 500 Canadian Dollar Hedged Index (Total Return), net of expenses.

“As with HXT, we do not anticipate that HXS will make any taxable distributions. This is consistent with the tradition of our other BetaPro ETFs, which have never paid out any quarterly or year-end taxable distributions,” Atkinson said. “As a result, HXS will not be exposed to withholding tax or the punitive foreign dividend tax that investors would otherwise be subject to if they held the index constituents directly.”

IE