Exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded products listed globally gathered $43.5 billion in net new assets during July, bringing year-to-date (YTD) flows to $391.3bn and passing the $390.4bn recorded during all of last year, according to ETF industry consultant ETFGI. The strong demand for ETFs/ETPs during July marked the 41st consecutive month of positive net inflows for the industry.
ETFs/ETPs listed globally have attracted $391.3bn in net inflows YTD through the end of July.
Assets invested in ETFs/ETPs listed globally increased 2.7% in July and 20.6% YTD, reaching total global assets of $4.279 trillion, as strong equity market performance also provided a boost to asset growth.
Deborah Fuhr, managing partner at ETFGI, commented: “Most equity markets continued to see gains in July. The S&P 500 gained 2% with Telecom and Info Tech the top performing sectors, up 6% and 4%, respectively. International equities, and especially emerging markets, were up 3% and 6%, respectively. Political risks remain a focus for investors – the ability of the Trump administration to move forward on policy goals, Brexit negotiations, and North Korea are all still areas of concern.”
Equity ETFs/ETPs gathered the largest net inflows during July with $29.6bn, followed by fixed income ETFs/ETPs which gathered a record level for July of $15.1bn, while commodity ETFs/ETPs experienced net outflows of $3.1bn.
Equity ETFs/ETPs have also gathered the largest net inflows YTD with a record $272.2bn, followed by fixed income ETFs/ETPs with a record level of $96.1bn, and commodity ETFs/ETPs with $4.3bn in net inflows.
iShares gathered the largest net ETF/ETP inflows in July with $18.1bn, followed by Vanguard with $9.5bn and SPDR ETFs with $2.8bn.
YTD, iShares gathered the largest net ETF/ETP inflows with $158.9bn, followed by Vanguard with $91.8bn and Schwab ETFs with $15.3bn.
At the end of July 2017, the global ETF/ETP industry had 6,978 ETFs/ETPs, with 13,192 listings from 329 providers listed on 69 exchanges in 56 countries.