iShares adds short-term bond fund to Core ETF lineup

XSQ has an annual management fee of 0.12%. XSQ has now closed the initial offering of its units, which began trading on the Toronto stock exchange on Monday.

“In an environment where rising rates are on the horizon, investors are reconsidering how best to access bonds,” said Noel Archard, managing director, head of BlackRock Canada, in a release. “With the addition of XSQ to our iShares Core Series, Canadian investors will have low-cost access to high quality short duration bonds that are well-suited for the long term as well as for managing against this potential risk.”

XSQ will provide diversified bond exposure with a weighting of 60 per cent government bonds and 40 per cent corporate bonds. The fund will capture the short end of the Canadian bond universe by seeking to replicate, to the extent possible, the performance of the FTSE TMX Canada Liquid Short Term Capped Bond Index.

Launched in March 2014, the iShares Core Series for Canadian investors was designed to make it easier for the long-term investor to identify the investments suitable for the core of their portfolio. To further strengthen this effort, effective July 16, the funds in the Core Series have been renamed to include “Core” directly in the fund name, as set out below.

Effective July 21, the TSX ticker symbols for the Common Units and the Advisor Class Units of the iShares Core High Quality Canadian Bond Index ETF have also changed. CAB becomes XQB and CAB.A becomes XQB.A.