ETFGI, a London-based exchange-traded fund consultancy, has announced that the global ETF/ETP industry has reached another milestone by growing to over $3tn in assets under management (AUM).
Deborah Fuhr, managing partner and co-founder of ETFGI.
The findings were detailed in the firm’s October Global ETF and ETP Insights report and also show that the number of ETFs/ETPs offered worldwide has surpassed 6,000 products. The global ETF/ETP industry now offers 6,015 ETFs/ETPs, through 11,598 listings, from 271 providers listed on 63 exchanges in 51 countries, as of the end of October.
According to the report, ETFs/ETPs attracted $35.6bn in net new assets during October, marking the 21st consecutive month of positive net inflows. As of 31 October 2015, global ETFs/ETPs had gathered $287.3bn in new assets year-to-date (YTD), a 22.3% increase over the prior record set last year.
During October, investors found favour once more with ‘risk-on’ assets, signalling a consensus belief that the heightened summer volatility experienced in global capital markets is unlikely to return. Deborah Fuhr, managing partner at ETFGI, commented: “Equity markets performed well globally in October: the Dow was up 9%, the S&P 500 was 8%, all 10 sectors of the S&P 500 were up for the month, developed markets gained 7%, emerging markets were up 8%. Investors put net money into riskier assets including emerging market equities in October.”
Equity-backed ETFs/ETPs were most in demand during October with net inflows of $22.6bn, followed by fixed income ETFs/ETPs with $14.5bn. In a separate report from BlackRock’s iShares, it was found that fixed income investors in the US favoured high yield corporate bond ETFs (+$6.1bn) over those tracking the investment grade sector (+$4.4bn), further signalling the increase in investors’ risk appetite.
Equity-based ETFs/ETPs have also been in favour on the global level YTD, recording net gatherings of $179.2bn, followed by fixed income ETFs/ETPs with $78.7bn and commodity ETFs/ETPs with $3.2bn.
The most successful gatherer of new assets among ETF/ETP providers globally has been iShares, raking in $19.2bn in October and $96.1bn YTD. Vanguard claimed second place with net inflows of $7.5bn and $66.8bn in October and YTD respectively.
Other providers whom have experienced notable positive net inflows YTD on the global stage have been Deutsche Bank’s db x-trackers, with $26.7bn; WisdomTree, with $19.6bn; and Nomura AM, with $17.3bn.