Tradeweb has reported that fixed income ETFs saw strong net selling on its web-based marketplace for European-listed ETFs during May 2018. According to the multilateral trading facility, ‘sells’ outstripped ‘buys’ in the asset class by 56% to 44%.
Total traded volume on Tradeweb’s European-listed-ETF marketplace amounted to €22.4 billion during May 2018, the second highest amount recorded.
Activity in fixed income ETFs also increased to 38% of overall notional volume, beating the previous 12-month rolling average by seven percentage points.
By contrast, ‘buys’ surpassed ‘sells’ in both commodity and equity ETFs, by 59% to 41% and 54% to 46% respectively. However, activity in both asset classes lagged their previous 12-month rolling averages. Commodity ETFs accounted for 4% of total platform flow (vs. 5% 12-month rolling average) while equity ETFs made up 58% (vs. 64% 12-month rolling average).
May proved to be the second strongest month on record for the Tradeweb European-listed-ETF marketplace since its launch in October 2012. Total traded volume amounted to €22.4 billion, while the proportion of transactions processed via its proprietary Automated Intelligent Execution tool (AiEX) remained high at 33.2%.
Source: Tradeweb.
Adriano Pace, head of equities (Europe) at Tradeweb, commented, “As the month drew to a close, platform activity accelerated amid heightened market volatility driven by political developments in Italy and Spain. More than €6 billion was executed in the last three days of May alone, which translates into 27% of the entire monthly flow.”
Top ten ETFs by traded volume
May’s list of the ten most heavily traded ETFs was dominated by fixed income products, with the iShares Corporate Bond UCITS ETF (LQDE LN) ranked first. The fund tracks the Markit iBoxx USD Liquid Investment Grade Index, composed of investment grade corporate bonds issued in US dollars. It has $5.0bn in assets under management and charges a total expense ratio (TER) of 0.20%. LQDE last appeared in the top ten in January 2018.
Source: Tradeweb.