The index is designed to provide diversification across 25 different commodities including energy, metals and agriculture. The index is designed to benefit from both differing fundamentals as well as technical analysis of the commodity spectrum with the investment objective of generating alpha regardless of the direction of the commodity market.

Since inception, on 30 April 2008, the index is up 67.8 per cent (as of 24 March 2009.

The index is operated by BNP Paribas and employs the commodity expertise of the Tiberius Group, a commodities investment manager. The index follows an investment strategy based on weekly recommendations from the Tiberius Group and a quantitative engine run by BNP Paribas, thus combining discretionary and systematic asset management in a single strategy. Whereas commodity indices can be heavily skewed towards the energy sector this fund should provide investors with a potentially more diversified exposure to the commodity universe.

The fund will have daily liquidity and gains are expected to be taxed as capital. The fund is also expected to be eligible for investment within Isas and Sipps in addition to direct investment.

The fund is backed by BNP Paribas and is collateralised with G7 AAA Government Bonds to mitigate any counterparty risk.

Ryan Rogowski, head of Harewood Solutions, BNP Paribas, says: 'We are launching the fund in to the UK market to take timely advantage of the current potential in this arena as well as to provide investors with alpha generating access to commodity future investments. Our investors are looking for opportunities that they perceive not only help to diversify the risk in their portfolios, but more importantly in this climate, that can generate real alpha.'