Originally published by BetaShares
Industry ekes out gains in another tough month in equities
Notwithstanding continued market volatility and sharemarket declines, the ETF industry returned to its growth trajectory after last month’s declines, ending the month at $41.1B in assets. The industry’s total market cap grew by 0.8% (+$320m), which was entirely driven by net inflows rather than asset appreciation. Read on for details of the month in ETFs.
Market Cap
- ASX Exchange Traded Funds Market Cap: $41.1B
- Market cap increase for month: 0.8%, +$320M
- Market cap growth for the last 12 months: 16%, + $5.6B
New Money
- New unit growth for month (units outstanding by number): $1.4B
- Net new money for month (units outstanding by $ value): +$573.6M
Comment: Net flows into the industry continued to be positive, amounting to $574m. This more than offsetted asset value declines experienced due to falling sharemarkets.
Products
- 247 Exchange Traded Products trading on the ASX – 10 new products launched on the ASX
Trading value
- Trading value declined 10% for the month after last month’s all time high trading value.
Performance
- Top performing products this month were the Palladium product (8.0%), followed by Betashares Strong Australian Dollar Hedge Fund (ASX: AUDS) (7.1%) and BetaShares Global Healthcare ETF (ASX: DRUG).
Top 5 Category Inflows (by $) – November 2018
| Category | Inflow Value |
| International Equities | $242,720,347 |
| Fixed Income | $188,761,742 |
| Australian Equities | $137,465,727 |
| Multi-Asset | $26,471,750 |
| Australian Listed Property | $11,822,767 |
Comment: International equities were once again the category with highest flows (after Australian equities briefly took the mantle last month), although continued investor uncertainty regarding equities actually caused Australian Bond exposures to be the largest sub-category for flows this month – with total flows of $180m.
Top Category Outflows (by $) – November 2018
| Category | Outflow Value |
| Short | ($27,457,715) |
| Currency | ($15,837,105) |
Comment: Net outflows at a category level were limited and appeared to be the result of investor profit taking – with investors selling out of Short exposures which rallied as the market declined, as well as continued selling in U.S. Dollar ETFs (even though the AUD staged a short-lived comeback in November).
Top Sub-Category Inflows (by $) – November 2018
| Category | Inflow Value |
| Australian Bonds | $179,212,160 |
| International Equities – Developed World | $164,337,318 |
| Australian Equities – Broad | $69,356,952 |
| International Equities – US | $31,667,333 |
| nternational Equities – Sector | $31,434,114 |