Highlights

• ETFs offer exposure to a wide range of securities and global financial markets, by tracking the performance benchmarks.
• Since 2007, the London Stock Exchange became a leading European centre for ETFs with currently over 1,200 ETFs. 

The Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) put money in a wide range of stocks, securities, and financial markets across the world, by tracking the performance benchmarks such as sector, index and commodities.

ETFs offer investors the chance to buy whole indices as easily as other securities in a stock exchange and its prices fluctuate as the indices. 

In April 2000, the first ETF was listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange with steady growth in number of funds listed in the following years. However, in 2007 the London Stock Exchange became a leading European centre for ETFs with currently over 1,200 ETFs listed by 43 issuers that, including over 200 ESG ETFs are offering exposure of wide range of asset classes and market, after the scrap of stamp duty.

The funds operate in an order-driven environment on SETS and the exchange offers integrated market maker liquidity provision for seamless support with bid-offer prices and guaranteed two-way prices throughout the trading day. In the first half of 2021, around 169 new ETFs were listed.

Also read: How do I buy Exchange-traded funds (ETF) in the UK?

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1. iShare Core FTSE 100 UCITS ETF (ISF)

Issuer: BlackRock  

Expense Ratio: 0.07%

Net Assets: GBP 9.81 billion

NAV: 692.15

Dividend Yield: 3.69%

One-year total return: 16.34%

Benchmark Index: FTSE 100 Index

Incepted on 27 April 2000, iShare Core FTSE 100 UCITS ETF (ISF) offers exposure of the 100 largest UK-listed companies, with an objective to deliver long-term capital growth by tracking the performance of an FTSE 100 Index.

The company’s top five holding includes Astrazeneca Plc (6.66%), Unilever Plc (5.20%), Diageo Plc (4.51%), HSBC Holdings Plc (4.51%) and Glaxosmithkline Plc (3.87%).

1. Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS ETF (VUSA)

      Issuer: Vanguard Funds Public Limited Company

Expense Ratio: 0.07%

Net Assets: GBP 27.18 billion

NAV: 27.58%

Dividend Yield: 1.12%

One-year total return: 29.65%

Benchmark Index: Standard and Poor’s 500 Index

Incepted on 22 May 2012, Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS ETF passively manages its portfolio that tracks the performance of the S&P 500 Index, which consist of large-sized company stocks in US.

The fund invest across a wide range of sectors such as IT, Healthcare, Consumer Discretionary, Financials, Communication Services, Industrials, Consumer Staples, Energy, Real Estate, Materials and Utilities. Its top five holdings include Microsoft (6.35%), Apple Inc (6%), Amazon. Com (3.75%), Tesla Inc (2.31%) and Alphabet Inc Class A (2.27%).

Also Read: Which ETFs can you choose right now?

2. Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ)

Issuer: Invesco Capital Management

Expense Ratio: 0.20%

Net Assets: GBP 144.74 billion

NAV: 399.26

Dividend Yield: 0.46%

One-year total return: 29.58%

Benchmark Index: NASDAQ 100 Index

Invesco QQQ ETF tracks Nasdaq 100 Index that consists of 100 largest domestic and international financial businesses, to deliver potential for long-term growth and liquidity.

The fund invests across a range of sectors including IT, Communication services, Consumer Discretionary, Healthcare, Consumer Staples, Industrials and Utilities. Its top five holdings include Apple (10.99%), Microsoft (9.96%), Amazon (7.82%), Tesla (4.52%) and Alphabet C (4.01%).

3. SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY)

Issuer: State Street Global Advisors

Expense Ratio: 0.09%

Net Assets: GBP 280.72 billion

NAV: 458.30

Dividend Yield: 1.30%

One-year total return: 40.90%

Benchmark Index: S&P 500 Index

Incepted on 22 January, 1993, SPDR S&P 500 ETF is one of the popular fund that tracks S&P 500 Index, which consist of 500 large and mid cap companies with weight of each stocks in portfolio same as the its benchmark index.

The fund invests across range of sectors including IT, Healthcare, Consumer Discretionary, Financials and Communication Services. Its top five investments include Microsoft Corporation (6.47%), Apple Inc (6.32%), Amazon.com Inc (4.02%), Tesla Inc (2.31%) and Alphabet Inc. Class A (2.25%).

4. First Trust United Kingdom AlphaDEX Fund (FKU)

Issuer: First Trust

Expense Ratio: 0.80%

Net Assets: GBP 70.70 million

NAV: 43.82

Dividend Yield: 2.02%

One-year total return: 21.85%

Benchmark Index: NASDAQ AlphaDEX UK Index

Floated on 14 February 2012, First Trust United Kingdom AlphaDEX aims to generate higher return than its benchmark Index, the NASDAQ AlphaDEX UK Index. The index uses the AlphaDEX stock selection strategy to select stocks from the NASDAQ UK Index. The fund invests usually invests 90% of its net assets in the stocks, real estate investment trusts, depositary receipts and preferred shares that comprise the index.

The fund invest across a range of sectors includes consumer discretionary, financials, consumer staples, materials and industrials and its top five investments include Investec Plc (2.84%), SEGRO Plc (2.81%), 3i Group Plc (2.70%), Tritax Big Box REIT Plc (2.65%) and Future Plc (2.42%).

Also read: What is Crypto ETF?

5. iShare Core US REIT ETF (USRT)

Issuer: BlackRock 

Expense Ratio: 0.08%

Net Assets: GBP 1.59 billion

NAV: 64.15

Dividend Yield: 2.47%

One-year total return: 38.12%

Benchmark Index: FTSE Nareit Equity REITS Index

Incepted on 01 May 2007, iShare Core US REIT ETF tracks the performance of the FTSE Nareit Equity REITS Index that consist of US real estate equities, to deliver income and growth to its investors with low-cost access to diversified US Real Estate Investment Trust.

The fund’s top five investments include Prologis REIT Inc (9.20%), Equinix REIT Inc (6.01%), Simon Property Group REIT Inc (4.13%), Public Storage REIT (4.08%) and Digital Realty REIT Corp (3.90%).

6. SPDR FTSE UK All Share UCITS ETF (FTAL)

 Issuer: State Street Global Advisors

Expense Ratio: 0.20%

Net Assets: GBP 776.41 million

NAV: 55.26

Dividend Yield: 2.47%

One-year total return: 35%

Benchmark Index: FTSE All-Share Index

Incepted on 28 February, 2012, SPDR FTSE UK All Share UCITS ETF tracks the performance of the UK equity market and its benchmark is FTSE All-Share Index that consists of all companies included in FTSE 100, FTSE 250 and FTSE Small Cap Index.

The fund invest across a range of sectors that include Financials, Industrials, Consumer Staples, Consumer Discretionary, Energy, Healthcare, Real Estate, Utilities, Telecommunications and Technology, and its top five investments include AstraZeneca Plc (5.34%), Unilever Plc (4.14%), Diageo Plc (3.64%), HSBC Holdings Plc (3.57%) and GlaxoSmithKline Plc (3.14%).