New ETF Tracks Polish Economy

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Van Eck has announced that it will launch a Market Vectors Poland ETF, providing investors with exposure to a fast-growing central European economy.

The new ETF, which will take the ticker symbol PLND, is expected to debut later this month. It will focus on small- and mid-cap stocks. Components will have a market cap of at least $150 million and a three-month average daily trading volume of at least $1 million to be eligible for the ETFs underlying Poland Index.

Van Eck has seen tremendous growth in the assets invested in its ETFs, from $3.3 billion in October 2008 to $10.4 billion last month.

Much of this growth can be attributed to Market Vectors products being in the right place at the right time. Both the Market Vectors "hard asset" equity ETFs, like the popular Gold Miners ETF(GDX) and Junior Gold Miners ETF(GDXJ), and international equity ETFs have offered focused exposure to areas of the market where investors have been piling in.

The new Poland fund will join other single-country Market Vectors funds like the Brazil Small-Cap(BRF), Indonesia(IDX), Russia(RSX) and Vietnam(VNM).

These narrowly themed funds have attracted a lot of attention as investors regain their appetite for risk.

BRF, launched in May of 2009, has already attracted nearly $500 million in assets. During the three-month period ending Nov. 17, BRF jumped nearly 41%. Although the IDX, launched in January 2009, took some time to attract investor interest and volume, the fund now has $188 million in assets and a three-month average trading volume of 102,000 shares.