London, 19 October 2009 

... As Resource-Equity Related ETFs Show Stellar Performance This Year.

• ETFX Funds now have over $275 million AUM, up 84% in the past two months.

• Resource-equity related ETFs show stellar performance this year, with ETFX Russell Global Coal Mining Fund up 109% YTD.

• ETFX equity ETF platform has seen strong trading growth, with turnover now reaching $100m per week.

ETF Securities Ltd (ETFS), the global pioneers in Exchange Traded Commodities (ETCs) and independent provider of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), is pleased to announce that ETF Exchange, its third generation ETF platform has now reached over $275m in assets under management.

The ETFX equity ETF platform has seen strong trading volume growth since the introduction of thematic ETFs in the fourth quarter of 2008, and 2x short and 2x leveraged equity ETFs at the end of Q2 2009, with weekly turnover in early October up four-fold since June. Recent strong turnover has been associated with swings in market sentiment since the start of the October quarter, with a growing contribution from leveraged and short ETFs recently pushing trading volumes over $100 million per week in the opening weeks of Q4.

Commodity-related ETFs have all increased sharply since the start of 2009, with average growth of 42% YTD in the week ended October 9 (21 percentage points ahead of the DJ-STOXX 50 Index). Gains have been led by a 109% increase in the ETFX Russell Global Coal Mining Fund (COAL), an 85% rise in ETFX Dow Jones 600 Basic Resources Fund (BRES) and a 60% increase in ETFX Russell Global Steel Large Cap Fund (STLL) as high beta commodities have prospered in the context of a rebound in cyclical activity indicators. Basic resources has been the strongest performing STOXX 600 sector so far in 2009, outperforming all other sectors by 50 percentage points on average YTD.

The vision for third generation ETFs was pioneered by ETF Securities. The idea was inspired by investor demands for increased levels of transparency, liquidity and counterparty risk management. ETF Securities identified that the current ETF issuance model by single financial institutions could be strengthened by diversifying index replication across a consortium of the strongest financial players and concentrating liquidity within a single platform. Under the current ETF issuance model, if the sponsoring / issuing financial institution fails, it is highly likely that their respective ETFs would be greatly disrupted and potentially liquidated.

Commenting on ETF Exchange reaching $275m in AUM, Mark Weeks, CEO of ETF Exchange, said: "The ETF Exchange has seen rapid growth in terms of product breadth, trading liquidity, and returns since its inception in the December quarter of 2008. With the participation of a world-class network of banks the platform will offer investors a unique opportunity to trade an innovative range of ETFs with an unparalleled level of service, setting a new benchmark in global ETF trading."

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