Strong Market Boosted ETF Flows During January

In January, assets in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) around the globe rose by $64 billion, according to Strategic Insight’s Global ETF FlowWatch. Equity ETFs received the strongest inflows, $25 billion, followed by bond and commodity ETFs, garnering $17 billion and $2 billion, respectively.

Strategic Insight attributes the strong flows to the “robust expansion of the U.S. stock markets.”

Worldwide, by the end of January, ETF assets stood at nearly $3.66 trillion.

In the U.S. equity ETFs attracted $27 billion of new flows, and bond ETFs recorded $14 billion in net new cash invested. By category, bond ETFs attracted most of the month’s net flows, nearly $9 billion, followed by equity-mid/small cap and equity-global large cap, which took in $8 billion and $6 billion, respectively.

In Asia, ETFs had $9 billion of net flows, primarily driven by Equity Japan ETFs, which amassed primarily all of the net flows. In Europe, ETFs enjoyed $13 billion of inflows, with equity ETFs taking in the lion’s share of $8 billion.

Among new ETF launches in January, the Source Bloomberg Commodity UCITS ETF A USD was the best-seller, accumulating $873 billion worth of interest from investors. This ETF tracks the Bloomberg Commodity Index.

The full FlowWatch analysis is available from www.sionline.com.