UBS is aiming to break into Europe’s exchange-traded fund big league following the listing of 64 of its funds on the London Stock Exchange, the largest number ever admitted to the LSE on a single day.

According to the LSE, the launch, which follows the listing of a suite of products by Vanguard Asset Management, has taken the total number of ETFs listed in London to 1,000.

The total value of ETF trading on the LSE has exceeded £500bn since the launch of the first fund in 2000, the exchange said.

UBS is carrying out the launch through its UBS Global Asset Management business. Its ETFs offer ‘A’ shares to retail investors and ‘I’ shares to institutional investors. Global head of ETFs Clemens Reuter said the unit size of ‘I” shares is a thousand times larger than ‘A’ shares: “Because they are dealt in bulk, the total cost of ownership becomes smaller.”

Of its London offerings, 17 will replicate the movement of indices through swap arrangements and a further 49 will operate in physical markets through the purchase and sale of underlying stocks. They will cover a range of equity sectors, plus investments in more esoteric areas such as infrastructure, rare earths and hedge funds.

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