An ETF for Catalist could be in the money

A GLANCE at the two accompanying charts should demonstrate the divergence between second liners and blue chips this year - the former, as represented by the FTSE ST Catalist Index, have risen just 3.4 per cent compared to the Straits Times Index's 13.2 per cent.

The story is the same if the evaluation period is 52 weeks - Catalist stocks have on average risen just 1.7 per cent against 14 per cent for blue chips.

Critics of the STI might latch on to these figures as indicating that the 30-stock index does not convey an accurate picture of broad market performance and to some extent they would have a case because the STI is heavily influenced by the banks, Singtel and Jardine group.