Exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded products listed globally gathered a record level of $68.3 billion in net inflows in February, marking the 37th consecutive month or over three years of net inflows, according to research from ETF industry consultant ETFGI.
As of the end of February 2017, YTD net inflows for ETFs/ETPs listed globally have amounted to $131.0bn.
Despite the shorter month, the level of net inflows surpassed the strong start to the year where investors piled $62.7bn of net new assets into the global ETF industry during January. Equity ETFs/ETPs gathered the largest net inflows with $44.bn, followed by fixed income ETFs/ETPs with $14.4bn, and commodity ETFs/ETPs with $6.0bn.
iShares gathered the largest net ETF/ETP inflows in February with $18.8bn, followed by Vanguard with $13.2bn and SPDR ETFs with $10.1bn.
Assets under management in ETFs/ETPs listed globally reached a new record level of $3.844 trillion as of the end of February, up $155bn from the prior record of $3.689tn set at the end of January 2017 as strong global equity market performance contributed to the new record.
Deborah Fuhr, managing partner and co-founder of ETFGI, commented: “The US equity market performed strongly in February with the S&P 500 up 4.0% and the DJIA was up 5.2%. International equity markets continued to perform well in February with the S&P Developed Ex-US BMI up 1.4% while the S&P Emerging BMI was up 3.5%.”
Record levels of AUM were also reached at the end of February 2017 for ETFs/ETPs listed in various regions including in the United States at $2.758tn, Europe at $620bn, Asia Pacific ex Japan at $136bn, Japan at $198bn and in Canada at $91bn.
Echoing the concerns of analysts globally, Fuhr noted several risk factors that may act as headwinds to equity markets driving global ETF/ETP AUM higher. She said: “There are significant upcoming political and economic events that investors will be watching in Europe in the next two months: the first round of the French election, a Dutch general election, the beginning of the UK’s “Brexit” negotiations and, officials from the EU and the IMF are once again locked in negotiations over the Greek bailout.”
Year-to-date through end of February 2017, ETFs/ETPs have gathered $131.0bn – a record amount of YTD net inflows. All major asset classes have surpassed their previous YTD net inflow records with equity ETFs/ETPs gathering $90.6bn, fixed income ETFs/ETPs attracting $27.5bn, and commodity ETFs/ETPs gaining $7.5bn.
YTD, iShares won the largest share of net ETF/ETP inflows with $38.0bn, followed by Vanguard with $29.2bn and SPDR ETFs with $12.4bn net inflows.
At the end of February 2017, the global ETF/ETP industry had 6,699 ETFs/ETPs, with 12,646 listings, from 298 providers listed on 65 exchanges in 53 countries.