Portfolio

Vanguard Group is extending its Admiral low-cost shares to six additional domestic equity index funds, effective September. The new fees will range from 10 basis points to 21 basis points.

Nationwide Funds Group has launched the Nationwide Alternatives Allocation Fund, a passively managed mutual fund that will invest in seven alternative asset classes: global real estate, emerging market debt, emerging market stocks, commodities, TIPS, international bonds and high-yield bonds.

Precidian Investments, formerly known as Next Investments, has launched the Maxis Nikkei 225 Index Fund, an exchange-traded fund that Precidian says is the first U.S-listed ETF based on the Nikkei.

Forward Management has introduced no-load share classes on three of its real estate and infrastructure funds, in an attempt to make alternatives more accessible to investors.

Faithshares is getting out of the Christian values exchange-traded fund business, confirming this week it will shutter its last remaining religious values-based ETF, the Christian Values Fund ETF (FOC), sometime next month.

Franklin Templeton Investments has launched the Templeton Frontier Markets Fund in Canada, which will invest at least 80% of its portfolio in 61 countries in the very early stages of development, such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Romania, Jordan, Tunisia, Columbia, Zambia, Paraguay and Kenya. International investing expert Mark Mobius will run the fund.

Cohen & Steers, an asset manager specializing in real estate, predicts that U.S. REITs will boost dividends by 10% a year for the next five years.

Franklin Templeton Investments has launched the Templeton Frontier Markets Fund in Canada, which will invest at least 80% of its portfolio in 61 countries in the very early stages of development, such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Romania, Jordan, Tunisia, Columbia, Zambia, Paraguay and Kenya. International investing expert Mark Mobius will run the fund.

UBS Investment Management has launched two ETRACs exchange-traded notes linked to the performance of the UBS Internet IPO Index, which is comprised of 20 social networking, Internet software and Internet services stocks that have gone public within the last three years.

Americans’ outlook for the economy darkened in June, a Harris Interactive poll of 2,183 adults in mid July found. Thirty-one percent are afraid that the economy will worsen in the coming year, 41% don’t expect any improvement, and only 26% are hoping things will pick up in the coming year.