Assets invested in ETFs/ETPs listed globally reached a record high of US$3.913 trillion, at the end of the first quarter of 2017, says a report by ETFGI released April 25. This amount has surpassed the previous record of US$3.844 trillion, which was set in February this year.

ETFs and ETPs gathered US$66 billion in net inflows in March. Year to date, ETFs and ETPs have gathered a record of US$197.26 billion in new net assets. Last year, during the same period, net inflows were of US$69.97 billion.

By the end of March 2017, the global industry had 6,771 ETFs/ETPs, with 12,750 listings. There were 305 providers listed on 67 exchanges in 55 countries.

Investors favouring equities

“Investors have favoured equities over fixed income and commodities as equity markets have performed positively in March and in the first quarter of 2017. The S&P 500 gained 0.1% in March and 6.1% during the first quarter,” says Deborah Fuhr, managing partner and founder of ETFGI, an independent research firm. “International equity markets performed strongly in March and in the first quarter with the international markets ex US up 2.6% in March and 7.5% in Q1 and emerging markets up 2.1% in March and 11.1% in Q1.  With the first round of the French elections looming in the next few weeks, European volatility expectations increased,” she observes.

iShares leads the pack

iShares gathered the largest net ETF/ETP inflows in March with US$27.32 billion, followed by Vanguard with US$13.64 billion and Nomura AM with US$3.70 billion net inflows.