The Markets
ETFs See Healthy Asset Gain
Last year was kind to the exchange-traded-funds (ETFs) market, with
a whopping 45% jump in assets over the year to $775.8 billion as of December 31,
according to the latest data from State Street Global Investors.
Reported by Fred Schneyer
The data also showed investors were apparently particularly keen on commodity ETFs (a 105%-asset jump for the year), fixed-income ETFs (up 78% for the year), and international ETFs (also up 78% for the year). Fixed-income funds crossed the $100 billion mark for the year with a 2.1% December increase and a 78.3% year-over-year hike.
The size and international categories saw the biggest leaps in absolute terms, up $20.8 billion and $5.3 billion, respectively, in December over the previous month. Gains in the size category saw the large-cap, mid-cap, and small-cap areas with $16.5 billion, $1.6 billion, and $2.6 billion December increases, respectively.
Among the sector funds, only Energy and Consumer Staples fell in absolute terms. The REIT, Technology, and Utilities sectors were all up over $1 billion in December.
Black Rock, State Street, and Vanguard continue to dominate the ETF market, according to the data. Together, the three account for 84.1% of the U.S.-listed ETF market.
The top three U.S. ETFs in terms of dollar volume traded for the month were the SPDR S&P 500, iShares Russell 2000, and PowerShares QQQ.