Australia’s ETF industry hits $39.2bn in H1
Australia’s exchange-traded funds (ETF) industry has finished the first half of the year at a new record high of $39.2 billion in funds under management (FUM) with the majority coming from net inflows, according to the BetaShares 2018 Australian ETF Half Year Review.
Passive index products received 77 per cent of these inflows while 16 per cent of the flows came from active ETFs which, according to the study, was a sign that a new category began to take hold in the market, with the expectation for continued growth.
BetaShares and Vanguard were the largest two issuers in the six-month period of net inflows, combining to receive over 50 per cent of the industry inflows.
At the category level, this year so far was dominated by international equities which received the largest level of net inflows ($1.4 billion) while fixed income remained the third largest category for flows, with investors diversifying the portfolios away from equities and benefitting from increased fixed income product choice.
Also, ethical investing proved to be a highly successful category which saw the Australian equities – ethical category receive almost the same amount of net inflows as the broader Australian equities category of ETFs ($130 million vs $135 million).
BetaShares’ managing director, Alex Vynokur, said: “It’s been another strong six months for the Australian ETF industry. This strong half reflects increased demand from investors and advisers who are seeing the benefits of owning exchange-traded products. If this trajectory continues, we expect to see yet another record year of asset growth.”
BetaShares and Vanguard were the largest two issuers in the six-month period for net inflows, combining to receive over 50 per cent of the industry inflows.
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