Daiwa Asset Management told the Tokyo Stock Exchange on August 24 that its iFreeETF MSCI Japan Human and Physical Investment Index fund (ticker 1479) traded persistently below its own net asset value for seven consecutive sessions. Daiwa attributes the gap to weak trading volume, which has kept market-price arbitrage from functioning properly.
From August 13 through August 21, the fund's closing market price on the exchange stayed at least 5% under its per-unit NAV every single day. The widest split came on August 14, when the ETF closed at ¥51,050 against a NAV of ¥56,880.4, a 10.2% discount. The gap narrowed to 6.5% by August 19 before widening again to 7.7% two sessions later.
| Date (2026) | Market close | NAV per unit | Divergence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 13 | ¥51,090 | ¥56,714.8 | 9.9% |
| Aug 14 | ¥51,050 | ¥56,880.4 | 10.2% |
| Aug 17 | ¥51,500 | ¥56,554.3 | 8.9% |
| Aug 18 | ¥50,500 | ¥55,522.1 | 9.0% |
| Aug 19 | ¥50,500 | ¥54,058.7 | 6.5% |
| Aug 20 | ¥50,500 | ¥54,680.6 | 7.6% |
| Aug 21 | ¥50,500 | ¥54,727.1 | 7.7% |
Daiwa's explanation is direct: the fund trades too little for arbitrage between its market price and NAV to work properly. The disclosure cautions that further price dislocations "may occur" depending on future supply and demand, without giving a date or threshold for when pricing might reconverge.
The notice does not detail the fund's portfolio holdings or explain any change to them. It is a caution to anyone trading ETF 1479 on the exchange: the quoted market price has not been reliably tracking what the underlying basket is worth, and treating NAV as a stand-in for exit value on this fund has been a bad assumption for more than a week running.