As stock markets rebounded, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and similar exchange-traded products (ETPs) have regained the $3 trillion* high water mark they first achieved in May last year.

$45.3 billion in new money in March

Research firm ETFGI says that globally-listed ETFs and ETPs added $45.3 billion in new money in March, which is the 26th consecutive month that the industry has recorded net inflows. Worldwide ETFGI has determined there were 6,240 ETFs/ETPs in existence at the end of March, with 12,042 listings and holding total assets of $3.07 trillion. Overall there were 277 product providers, listed on 64 exchanges in 51 countries.

Two global powerhouses

iShares and Vanguard are the two global powerhouses; the former has gathered the highest net ETF/ETP inflows year to date with $24.54 billion, while the latter reported net inflows of $17.82 billion. SPDR ETFs came in third year to date, and had $8.78 billion of net inflows.

As for which indices are the most popular, S&P Dow Jones has the largest amount of assets tracking its benchmarks with a 27.5% share of the global market. MSCI came in second with a 14.6% market share, followed by FTSE Russell with a 12.4% share of the market

*All figures in this article reported in US dollars