Guggenheim Investments, the eighth-largest U.S. ETF sponsor, said it will close nine low-asset exchange traded funds. The announcement was made after the close of U.S. markets Friday.

The average size of the nine closing ETFs is $ 16 million, for a total of $ 144 million, equaling about one percent of of Guggenheim Investments’ total $ 13.7 billion in exchange-traded assets under management as of January 31, the firm said in a statement.

The last day of trading for the ETFs is expected to be Friday, March 15, 2013. Coming on the heels of a record number of closures for the exchange-traded products industry in 2012, three ETFs and one ETN were closed in January. None of those were Guggenheim products.

Guggenheim will close the Wilshire 4500 Completion ETF (NYSE: WKSP), the Wilshire 5000 Total Market ETF (NYSE: WFVK), the Guggenheim Inverse 2x S&P 500(R) ETF (NYSE: RSW) and the Guggenheim 2x S&P 500(R) ETF (NYSE: RSU), among others.

Perhaps in what can be viewed as a surprise given investors’ current hunger for dividends and yield, the Guggenheim ABC High Dividend ETF (NYSE: ABCS) will also be closed. ABCS currently yields 5.34 percent.

Guggenheim will also close three of its equal-weight products, though the firm remains one of the dominant purveyors of such ETFs. Those closures are the Guggenheim MSCI EAFE Equal Weight ETF (NYSE: EWEF), the Guggenheim S&P MidCap 400(R) Equal Weight ETF (NYSE: EWMD) and the Guggenheim S&P SmallCap 600(R) Equal Weight ETF (NYSE: EWSM).

The Guggenheim Airline ETF (NYSE: FAA) will also be closed. Barring a new introduction from another issuer, FAA’s departure means there will no longer be an ETF devoted to the airline industry. Direxion closed a rival airline ETF in late 2011.

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Tags: Guggenheim Investments

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