Another day, another set of data showing record inflows into exchange-traded funds (ETFs), continuing the upward trend we’ve seen over the last few years.
Let’s start here at home. Canadian-listed ETFs have gathered US$7 billion in net new assets so far this year, according to London-based research firm ETFGI. The positive inflows came at a time when global market uncertainty has been front and centre for investors fueled by problems in China and Greece. That didn’t seem to stop investors from putting money into ETFs. Of that US$7 billion, flowed into equity ETFs (US$3.2 billion), followed by fixed income ($2.8 billion) and—way further behind—commodities ($23 million).
July, however, saw investors in Canadian ETFs focus on fixed income which took in US$130 million versus just US$53 million for equities and US$40 million for commodities.
ETFGI’s U.S. ETF report is interesting because it shows how quickly ETFs are growing—according to the data, U.S.-listed ETFs are gathering net new assets 8% faster than in previous years. So far this year, ETF assets have gained US$125.1 billion in net new assets—that beats the previous record in 2013 of US$115.9 billion for the same period.
Globally, the trend is the same as ETFs gather net new assets at a record pace—ETFGI reports that, for the first seven months of 2015, they gathered US$199 billion—higher than the previous record of US$164 billion for 2014. Europe set a record for net new assets pulling in US$48.4 billion versus US$42.9 billion for the same period in 2014; Japan drew US$24 billion, a significant jump from last year’s US$15 billion for the same period.
It will be interesting to see how ETFs fare during the next period, particularly with a U.S. rate hike on the horizon (very possibly in September). Stay tuned…
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