NEW YORK CITY-Asset manager Van Eck Global launched a new mortgage REIT ETF Wednesday, Market Vectors Mortgage REIT Income ETF. It’s designed to track the performance of the Market Vectors Global Mortgage REITs Index, which the firm says was comprised of 25 REITs as of July 31, 2011. These are all focused on residential and commercial mortgages, and include Annaly Capital Management, American Capital Agency Corp. and Chimera Investment Corp.

The launch comes at a potentially inauspicious time, both on the heels of a turbulent few weeks on the stock market and of Standard & Poor’s downgrade of US debt. However, favorable to this type of REIT is another recent development: the announcement by the Federal Open Market Committee that it plans to keep interest rates at a relatively low level at least through mid-2013.

“We know that the Fed views short rates on hold for the next almost 24 months and that there will continue to be good opportunities for mortgage REITs to generate fairly substantial dividends,” Sean Kelleher, chief investment strategist at Shay Assets Management, said at the rollout of the ETF. “I think that’s going to allow them to continue to raise capital.”