iShares' New ETFs

In the early days of Exchange Traded Funds (ETF), most of the ETFs were designed to provide investors with diversified exposure to wide areas of the stock market. Examples are QQQ for Nasdaq 100 or SPY for S&P-500 or DIA for Dow Jones Industrial Average or iShares Russell 2000 (IWM). However, gradually all of the popular indexes were taken up and licensed by ETF providers. The attention has now fallen on more specialized industry offerings, as well as funds tracking alternative investments such as commodities and currencies.

On May 5th, Barclays Global Investors rolled out as many as 10 new ETF offerings which are focused on specialized subsector indexes.

The new ETFs are:
iShares Dow Jones U.S. Oil & Gas Exploration & Production (IEO)
iShares Dow Jones U.S. Oil Equipment & Services (IEZ)
iShares Dow Jones U.S. Pharmaceuticals (IHE)
iShares Dow Jones U.S. Healthcare Providers (IHF)
iShares Dow Jones U.S. Medical Devices (IHI)
iShares Dow Jones U.S. Broker-Dealers (IAI)
iShares Dow Jones U.S. Insurance (IAK)
iShares Dow Jones U.S. Regional Banks (IAT)
iShares Dow Jones U.S. Aerospace & Defense (ITA)
iShares Dow Jones U.S. Home Construction (ITB)

All these funds have expense ratio of 0.48% of their assets.