“Intermediate-duration bonds, meaning those with a maturity in the six to 17 year range, are a crucial component of a complete municipal bond investment strategy, and ITM allows investors to gain targeted exposure to these maturities,” said James Colby, Portfolio Manager and Senior Municipal Strategist with Market Vectors ETFs. “We’re very pleased to receive this recognition from Morningstar.” In addition to overseeing the Market Vectors family of ETFs, Mr. Colby regularly writes about the municipal bond market in his blog Muni Nation.

ITM launched in December 2007, and was among the first municipal bond ETFs brought to market. ITM seeks to replicate as closely as possible, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the Barclays AMT-Free Intermediate Continuous Municipal Index (LMT2TR). The index is a market value weighted index designed to replicate the price movements of medium-duration bonds.

ITM has an expense ratio of 0.24% and its $740 million in assets makes it the second-largest ETF behind Market Vectors High-Yield Municipal Index ETF in the Market Vectors municipal income lineup, which had a combined $2.2 billion in AUM as of December 31, 2012.

The other funds in this suite include Market Vectors CEF Municipal Income ETF (NYSE Arca: XMPT), Market Vectors High-Yield Municipal Index ETF (NYSE Arca: HYD), Market Vectors Long Municipal Index ETF (NYSE Arca: MLN), Market Vectors Pre-Refunded Municipal Index ETF (NYSE Arca: PRB), and Market Vectors Short Municipal Index ETF (NYSE Arca: SMB).

More information on ITM or any other Market Vectors income-oriented ETFs can be found here.

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*For each fund with at least a three-year history, Morningstar calculates a Morningstar Rating™ based on a Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return measure that accounts for variation in a fund’s monthly performance (including the effects of sales charges, loads, and redemption fees), placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. The top 10% of funds in each category receive 5 stars, the next 22.5% receive 4 stars, the next 35% receive 3 stars, the next 22.5% receive 2 stars and the bottom 10% receive 1 star. (Each share class is counted as a fraction of one fund within this scale and rated separately, which may cause slight variations in the distribution percentages.) The Overall Morningstar Rating for a fund is derived from a weighted average of the performance figures associated with its three-, five- and ten-year (if applicable) Morningstar Rating metrics. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

About Market Vectors ETFs

Market Vectors exchange-traded products have been offered since 2006 and span many asset classes, including equities, fixed income (municipal and international bonds) and currency markets. The Market Vectors family currently totals $27.6 billion in assets under management, making it the fifth largest ETP family in the U.S. and eighth largest worldwide as of December 31, 2012.

Market Vectors ETFs are sponsored by Van Eck Global. Founded in 1955, Van Eck Global was among the first U.S. money managers help