A new ETF giving access to Chinese A shares is to be launched in Singapore next month.

The United FTSE Xinhua China A50 ETF, to be offered by the asset management subsidiary of United Overseas Bank (UOB), will be the first China A-shares fund to be denominated and traded in Singapore dollars.

Chinese A shares are denominated and traded in Chinese yuan and listed on the Shanghai or Shenzhen stock exchanges. Historically, access to the A-shares market in China has been limited to Chinese nationals and qualified foreign institutional investors (QFIIs) approved by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC).

The FTSE Xinhua China A50 Index is designed to measure the performance of the 50 largest China A-shares companies, based on market capitalization.

ETFs tracking A shares are already dominant in the Asian market. The Hong Kong-listed iShares Asia Trust, which also tracks the FTSE Xinhua A50 Index, is the largest Asian ETF, with $6.7

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Listing of new binary options as exchange-traded vehicles expected to attract more brokers into largely institutional marketplace.

On Tuesday, the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) listed binary put options on the S&P 500 Index (option ticker: BSZ) and the CBOE Volatility Index (option ticker: BVZ).

Binary call options began trading on the S&P 500 and VIX in July. Activity has ticked up in early volumes, reaching as high as 10,000 to 12,000 contracts on some days, and averaging 2,500 contracts daily during September. Most of that early action has been in the S&P 500 binary options.

Early adoption of the binary options has primarily been on the institutional side, according to the CBOE, but the CBOE expects that the exchange-traded nature of the binary options may start to bring in more brokerage business.

Binary options are exchange-traded, and this means the CBOE binary options include clearing guarantees unavailable in over-the-counter

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