Continuing to play on the popularity of regional investments, iShares is expanding its line of MSCI-tracking products with the addition of four new country-specific offerings. The funds target popular investment destinations, including Poland, China, Indonesia, and New Zealand.

The four new funds are as follows:

1. iShares MSCI China Small-Cap Index Fund

2. iShares MSCI Poland Investable Market Index Fund

3. iShares MSCI Indonesia Investable Market Index Fund

4. iShares MSCI New Zealand Investable Market Index Fund

The iShares China Small-Cap Index Fund will invest in the bottom 14% of stocks by market cap, according to an SEC filing, and the ETF will include more than 200 stocks in a number of industries. The iShares MSCI Poland Investable Market Index Fund will track a benchmark of 63 stocks in the top level of market capitalization.

The two new Indonesia and New Zealand funds will invest in the largest stocks by market cap in each respective country, with the Indonesia fund including 41 stocks, followed by 22 for New Zealand. The iShares MSCI New Zealand Investable Market Index Fund will be the first country-specific fund with a focus on New Zealand based equities. No tickers or annual fees have been announced.

Following the trend of niche ETF plays, including a Polish stock ETF and a small cap gold miners fund, Van Eck has filed to create a Latin America small cap fund. The fund follows another popular Van Eck product, the Market Vectors Brazil Small-Cap ETF (BRF: Quote, Profile, Advanced Chart, News), which ended the year as one of the fastest growing ETFs.

The fund will track an underlying index created by Structured Solutions AG, but will be branded and sold as a Market Vectors product. The index contains approximately 75 different stocks trading in Latin America that generate at least 50% of their revenues from the area, according to the SEC filing.

The fund will seek investments with a market cap of at least $150 million, and the prospectus indicates the fund will trade with a .50% annual fee.

A new fund issued by Van Eck to track Polish stocks began trading on the NYSE Arca last Wednesday, immediately prior to the Thanksgiving holiday. The fund, which trades under the ticker symbol PLND, is the first country-specific fund to track Polish stocks.

The Market Vectors Poland ETF (PLND: Quote, Profile, Advanced Chart, News) will focus largely on small and mid-cap stocks with a market cap of at least $150 million and sufficient three-month liquidity of $1 million per day, TheStreet reports. The fund will be heavily invested in financial stocks at 40% of its portfolio, with energy and industrials trailing with 14% and 11% respectively. The fund trades for a respectable .76% annual expense.

Van Eck remains one of the fastest growing ETF sponsors. From October 2008 to October 2009, Van Eck’s assets under management more than tripled from $3.3 billion to $10.4 billion.

Global X Funds will take on its largest expansion yet, filing with the SEC to create thirteen new ETFs. Six of the new funds will target Chinese sectors, while the other seven are set to tap markets typically unavailable to U.S. investors.

The Chinese funds are as follows: Global X Consumer, Global X China Energy, Global X China Financials, Global X China Industrials, Global X China Materials and Global X China Technology.

The funds will be invested 80% in foreign ADRs and 20% in swaps and options contracts to perform within 95% of their indicated benchmarks, according to a filing with the SEC.

Beyond China, Global X is launching other new international ETFs: Global X Denmark, Global X Emerging Africa, Global X Finland, Global X Norway, Global X Pakistan, Global X Poland and Global X United Arab Emirates. These funds will seek to track stocks in each of their corresponding markets. The new funds follow in the footsteps of the Global X InterBolsa FTSE Columbia (GXG: Quote, Profile, Advanced Chart, News), which has jumped 86.5% since launching in February.

On June 12, 2008, Claymore Securities and The Bank of New York Mellon pioneered the only U.S.-listed frontier market ETF, known as Claymore/BNY Mellon Frontier Markets ETF (FRN). Two weeks after the launch of FRN, Claymore has announced a change to the underlying index meant to rebalance the markets. As a result of the change, The BNY Mellon New Frontier DR Index has added three more country markets to the mix, according to the Business Wire press release. The countries that have been added include Kuwait, Estonia, and Ukraine, which now brings the market exposure to 17 countries. According to Business Wire, the countries that now make up FRN are as follows: Bahrain, Chile, Columbia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Ukraine and United Arab Emirate. Christian Magoon, President of Claymore and Head of its ETF Group, states, "With its expanded 17 country-composition, FRN continues to provide frontier investors with access to this intriguing growth opportunity.