ETFs and ETPs listed in Europe reported net outflows of US$22.83 billion at the end of March, the largest monthly outflow for Europe, bringing year-to-date net outflows to US$1.63 billion, ETFGI, a research and consultancy firm covering trends in the global ETFs/ETPs ecosystem, reported April 28.
Assets invested in the European ETFs/ETPs industry have decreased by 12.3%, from US$997.31 billion at the end of February, to US$874.87 billion, according to ETFGI's March 2020 European ETFs and ETPs industry landscape insights report.
“At the end of March, the S&P 500 was down 12.35% as the Covid-19 pandemic forced the US government to take strict measures and set some form of lockdown around the states reinforcing the fear for deep recession and high unemployment,” says Deborah Fuhr, managing partner, founder and owner of ETFGI.
“Outside the US, the S&P Developed ex-US BMI plummeted nearly 14.29%. The S&P Emerging BMI dove 16.97% during the month and global equities as measured by the S&P Global BMI plunged 14.32% as well.”
Commodity ETFs/ETPs gathered US$3.46 billion in net inflows during March bringing net inflows to US$7.90 billion for 2020, which is greater than the US$616 million in net inflows gathered at this point in 2019.
Equity ETFs/ETPs listed in Europe reported net outflows of US$14.13 billion in March, bringing net outflows for the year to US$5.31 billion, lower than the US$10.19 billion in net inflows equity products had attracted at this point in 2019.
Fixed income ETFs/ETPs listed in Europe had net outflows of US$10.83 billion in March, bringing net outflows for the year to US$3.35 billion, much lower than the US$19.82 billion in net inflows fixed income products had at end of March 2019.
Substantial inflows can be attributed to the top 20 ETFs by net new assets, which collectively gathered US$11.76 billion at the end of March. The Vanguard FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield UCITS ETF gathered US$1.03 billion alone.
Investors have tended to invest in commodity ETFs and ETPs at the end of March.
