Tradeweb has reported that equity and fixed income ETFs saw net buying on its European ETF marketplace during July, while muted total traded volume reflected similar seasonal patterns from prior years.
Total traded volume on Tradeweb’s European-listed ETF marketplace amounted to €18.2 billion during July 2018.
The firm reported that notional volume executed on the web-based platform reached €18.2 billion in July, against a background of geopolitical risk concerns.
Adriano Pace, Head of Equities (Europe) at Tradeweb, commented, “The average trade size conducted on the platform was €1.6 million in July, down from €2 million in the previous month, as a result of the traditional summer slowdown. However, buy-side clients benefited from faster responses to their trade enquiries, a clear indication of the increased adoption of automated trading by ETF-investing firms.”
The firm noted that more than one third of all transactions on the platform were processed via its Automated Intelligent Execution (AiEX) tool.
‘Buys’ in equity ETFs outstripped ‘sells’ by eight percentage points, while overall activity in the asset class amounted to 61% of total platform flow, two percentage points lower than the previous 12-month rolling average.
Fixed income ETFs were strongly bought, with ‘buys’ surpassing ‘sells’ by 22 percentage points. A third of total platform flow was attributable to activity within the asset class.
Commodity-based products were the only ETFs to see net selling in July, with 69% of trading activity in the asset class attributed to ‘sells’. Activity in the asset class amounted to 6% of total platform flow.
Source: Tradeweb.
Top ten ETFs by traded volume
Seven equity ETFs and three fixed income funds were among July’s top ten most heavily traded ETFs, with the SPDR MSCI ACWI ETF (ACWD) ranked first. The fund tracks the MSCI ACWI (All Country World Index) Index which includes stocks issued by companies in both developed and emerging market countries from around the world. With just over $1bn in assets under management and a reasonable total expense ratio (TER) of 0.40%, the ETF is a popular with investors looking for broad equity exposure.
In second place was the iShares Core € Corporate Bond UCITS ETF (IEAC) which has featured on the top ten list for the third consecutive month this year. It tracks the Bloomberg Barclays Euro Aggregate Corporate Index, providing exposure to euro-denominated, investment grade corporate bonds with maturities greater than one year. It is the largest fixed income ETF in Europe with AUM of €7.7bn. Its TER is 0.20%.
Source: Tradeweb.