Assets in European listed exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded products hit a record high of $522bn in the first three months of the year, according to data from consultancy ETFGI. The figure helped boost global ETF/ETP assets to break through the $3tn mark for only the second time, having first done so at the end of May last year.
According to ETFGI, flows into ETFs and ETPs hit a record high in Europe, while globally assets broke through the $3tr mark.
Net new assets in March hit $45.3bn globally marking the 26th consecutive month of net inflows. This was made up of $26.3bn flowing into equity ETFs/ETPs, followed by $14.8bn into fixed income and $2.42bn into commodity ETFs/ETPs.
In Europe, the largest portion of investor money [$6.18bn] went into fixed income and commodities [$1.10bn]. However, these figures were offset by outflows from equity ETFs/ETPs of $2.29bn. Year-to-date net inflows into commodity ETFs/ETPs hit a record high of $4.49bn – the previous record was set in the first quarter of 2012 when flows hit $2.01bn.
Deborah Fuhr, managing partner at ETFGI, said in a statement: “U.S. equities rebounded in March ending the month up 7%. Emerging markets and Developed ex-US markets also had a strong March ending up 12.5% and 7.2% respectively. Based on comments from the Fed there is a growing belief that interest rates will be held lower for longer than previously anticipated. The European Central Bank cut rates and announced additional stimulus will begin in April, accelerating the rate of bond purchases from 60 to 80 billion euros per month.”
At the end of the first quarter of the year, the global ETF/ETP industry has 6,240 ETFs/ETPs, with 12,042 listings, assets of $3.07tn, from 277 providers listed on 64 exchanges in 51 countries. In Europe, there are 2,207 ETFs/ETPs, 6,895 listings and assets of $522bn, from 52 providers listed on 25 exchanges in 21 countries.
Globally, iShares gathered the largest net ETF/ETP inflows in March with $20.97bn (the provider has also gathered the largest net inflows of $24.54bn YTD), followed by Vanguard with $9.74bn and SPDR ETFs with $6.25bn in net inflows.
S&P Dow Jones has the largest amount of ETF/ETP assets tracking its benchmarks with 27.5% market share; MSCI is second with 14.6% market share, followed by FTSE Russell with 12.4% market share.