ETF global assets hit record $2.44 trillion
London, March 8, 2014
Flows into exchange-traded funds (ETF) and exchange-traded product, (ETPs) listed globally rebounded in February gathering net inflows of $29 billion which, when combined with the positive market performance in the month, pushed assets in the global ETF/ETP industry to a new record high of $2.44 trillion, according to a report.
ETF is an investment fund traded on stock exchanges, much like stocks, while ETPs include exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded notes.
The global industry has 5,183 ETFs/ETPs, with 10,210 listings, from 219 providers on 59 exchanges, stated consultancy firm ETFGI in its preliminary findings for its February Global ETF and ETP industry insights report.
“Positive comments from the Fed indicating that the US economy continues to brighten, the S&P 500 ending February with a record close of 1859 and signs of a wider global recovery in equities seems to have caused investors to come out of their winter hibernation after the winter storms and put net inflows of $29 billion into ETFs/ETPs in February,” remarked Deborah Fuhr, Managing Partner at ETFGI.
Dissecting the overall net inflows we find that fixed income ETFs/ETPs gathered $16.8 billion - the largest net inflows - followed by equity ETFs/ETPs with $10.2 billion. Commodity ETFs/ETPs saw net inflows of $870 million, stated the report.
The competition to gather assets remains high. The top 100 ETFs/ETPs - less than 2 per cent of the 5,183 ETFs/ETPs - account for more than half (57 per cent) of global assets.
Only 7 per cent of ETFs/ETPs hold more than $1 billion in assets, while 69 per cent have less than $100 million in assets, 59 per cent have less than $50 million in assets and nearly a third of all products have less than $10 million in assets, it stated.
In the first two months of 2014 Vanguard has gathered the largest net ETF/ETP inflows with $9.4 billion, followed by iShares with $7.1 billion, Nomura AM with $4.2 billion, First Trust with $2.5 billion and Guggenheim with $2 million in net inflows, the ETFGI report added.-TradeArabia News Service
