Tradeweb has reported that European equity ETFs saw strong net selling activity on its European-listed ETF marketplace during November with ‘sells’ outstripping ‘buys’ by fourteen percentage points.
Tradeweb reports that investors using its European ETF Marketplace were bearish on European equities during November with ‘sells’ outstripping ‘buys’ by fourteen percentage points.
European equity ETFs were the most heavily-traded sector during the month at €2.22 billion and were one of the few stock-based segments to record net selling. North American equity ETFs were the second most heavily-traded sector for November (€2.03bn) and saw a difference in buying and selling activity of four percentage points in favour of ‘buys’. Investors were significantly bullish on emerging market equity ETFs (€1.28bn) during the month with a margin of 26 percentage points between buying and selling.
November’s activity in equity ETFs mirrored the previous 12-month rolling average, making up 61% of the total platform flow. Relative to total platform flow, ‘buys’ in equity ETFs outpaced ‘sells’ by five percentage points.
Fixed income ETFs accounted for 35% of total platform activity with ‘buys’ above ‘sells’ by seven percentage points. Government bonds were fixed income’s most active ETF sector with more than €1.33bn in traded volume. ‘Buys’ surpassed ‘sells’ within the segment by eight percentage points.
‘Buys’ in commodity ETFs surpassed ‘sells’ by two percentage points, collectively accounting for 4 % of total platform volume.
Notional volume executed across all sectors of Tradeweb’s European-listed ETF marketplace reached €14.18 bn in November.
Source: Tradeweb.
Notably, more than 29% of European ETF transactions on Tradeweb’s platform last month were processed using the platform’s automated intelligent execution tool, significantly up from January’s 6% figure.
Commenting on the emerging trend, Adriano Pace, managing director for equity derivatives at Tradeweb, said: “The growing use of automated trading by Tradeweb clients demonstrates the efficiency that the functionality brings to the market, as it begins to adopt new ways of trading amid regulatory change and resource pressures.”
Top ten ETFs by traded volume
There was an equal split between equity- and debt-based instruments occupying November’s top ten ETF list by traded volume. The PIMCO Euro Short Maturity Source UCITS ETF (PJS1 GR) returned to the top after last holding the spot in June 2017. The fund invests primarily in an actively managed diversified portfolio of euro-denominated fixed income securities, and has AUM over €2.3bn with a TER of 0.35%.
Source: Tradeweb.