Globally the exchange-traded funds (ETF), an investment fund traded on stock exchanges (much like stocks) and the exchange traded products had outflows of $3.98 billion in June, their first net outflows in over two years, said a report.

The assets invested globally in the ETFs and ETPs hit $2.04 trillion, down from their all-time high of $2.13 trillion at the end of May 2013, according to preliminary figures from ETFGI’s global ETF and ETP industry insights report for the first half.

Established by industry expert Deborah Fuhr and partners, ETFGI is a wholly independent research and consultancy firm catering to top global institutional and professional investors, the global exchange traded fund and exchange traded product industry, its regulators and  advisers.

According to the Insight report, there are 4,849 ETFs and ETPs, with 9,878 listings, assets of $2.04 trillion, from 209 providers listed on 56 exchanges. The year to date assets in ETFs and ETPs have increased by 4.9 per cent from $1.95 trillion to $2.04 trillion.

Average daily trading volumes in ETFs/ETPs in June were $92.2 billion, representing an increase of 31.1 per cent from May and the highest level since October 2011.

“Market uncertainty surrounding the future of QE programs and volatility in the markets caused investors to withdraw $3.98 billion from ETFs and ETPs in June” according to Deborah Fuhr, the managing partner at ETFGI.

The fixed income ETFs/ETPs experienced the largest net outflows with $7.1 billion, followed by commodity ETFs/ETPs with $3.8 billion, while equity ETFs/ETPs gathered net inflows with $4.8 billion.

The year to date through end of H1 2013, ETFs/ETPs have seen net inflows of $103.9 billion, which is slightly lower than the $107.2 billion of net inflows at this time last year, said the report.

In June, the equity ETFs/ETPs saw net inflows of $4.8 billion across the globe with the North America drawing the largest net inflows with worth $6.9 billion followed by the developed European equity indices with $3 billion, while emerging market equity ETFs/ETPs experienced net outflows with $4.9 billion.

Fixed income ETFs/ETPs saw net outflows of $7.1 billion in June 2013. Inflation ETFs/ETPs experienced the largest net outflows with $2.1 billion, followed by high yield with $2 billion, and emerging market bond with $1.8 billion, while government bond ETFs/ETPs gathered net inflows with $1.1 billion, the report stated.

In June, the commodity ETFs/ETPs saw net outflows of $3.8 billion. Precious metals experienced the largest net outflows with $3.2 billion.

Vanguard ranked third in terms of ETF/ETP assets and was ahead in asset gathering with $28.9 billion in net inflows year to date. It was the only one of the top five providers to receive net inflows in June, said the ETFGI report.

iShares ranked first in terms of assets, with net out flows of $7.9 billion in June, and net inflows of $23 billion year to date. The SPDR funds ranked second in assets boasting of $2.4 billion net out flows for the month besides $6 billion net outflows year to date.

Powershares ranked fourth in assets with net out flows of $586 million and net inflows of $7.16 billion year to date followed by DB X trackers whihc ranked 5th in terms of assets with net out flows of $751 million and net inflows of $9 million year to date.

According to the report, S&P Dow Jones had the largest amount of ETF and ETP assets tracking its benchmarks with $563 billion, reflecting 27.5 per cent market share; MSCI came second with $319 billion and 15.6 per cent market share, followed by Barclays with $188 billion and 9.2 per cent market share.-TradeArabia News Service