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APRIL 2021: INDUSTRY POWERS AHEAD INTO Q2
After breaking the $100B assets under management milestone in March, the Australian ETF industry has powered ahead in April, assisted by the ‘triple threat’: 1) strong sharemarket gains 2) higher than average net flows, and 3) another large unlisted fund conversion on Chi-X. Read on for more details, including best performers, asset flow categories and more.
Australian ETP Market Cap: August 2001 – April 2021
Source: ASX, Chi-X, BetaShares.
Market cap
- ASX Exchange Traded Product market cap: $108.8B1 – all time end-of-month high
- Market cap change for month: 5.8%, $5.9B
- Market cap growth for the last 12 months: 78%, + $47.5B – fastest yearly growth ($ terms) on record
Comment: The high level of flows pushed the industry to $108.8B, another record high. Industry growth over the last 12 months has been 78%, representing absolute growth of $47.5B over this period – the highest $ value increase over 12 months in the industry’s history.
1. Includes total FuM for ETFs trading on both ASX and Chi-X
New money
- Net new money for month (units outstanding by $ value): +$1.9B
Comment: Total industry flows remained strong, with $1.9B of net new flows entering the industry this month – the highest month yet for 2021 (note: all time largest net flows were $2.7B in December 2020). ~32% of the growth this month derived from net new money into the industry, 44% from asset value appreciation and the remaining 24% from the conversion from unlisted form of Alliance Bernstein’s Managed Volatility Fund onto Chi-X.
Products
- 267 Exchange Traded Products trading on the ASX and Chi-X.
Comment: Two new products launched, including BetaShares Australian Major Banks Hybrids Index ETF (ASX: BHYB) and the unlisted fund conversion from Alliance Bernstein. There are now 29 issuers of either ETFs or Active ETFs in the market.
Trading value
- ASX ETF trading value down ~8% vs. the previous month.
Comment: Monthly trading value remained high, albeit declining 8% month on month, but remaining at approximately the $7B mark.
Performance
- Best performance this month came from leveraged/geared U.S. equities exposures including our Geared U.S. Equity Fund (+11.5% for the month), which was also a top performer last month. We also saw strong performance from commodities including Palladium and Crude Oil exposures.
Top 5 category inflows (by $) – April 2021
| Category | Inflow Value |
| International Equities | $807,720,016 |
| Australian Equities | $433,020,315 |
| Fixed Income | $243,214,991 |
| Cash | $159,914,887 |
| Multi-Asset | $153,795,484 |
Comment: In a repeat of the pattern this year to date, global equities received the highest amount of flow. International equities received ~$800m of net flow, followed by Australian equities which received ~$430m. We also saw, for the first time this year, strong inflows into Cash exposures, which, on a relative basis, are still able to provide investors with meaningful pick-up on cash rates vs. at-call deposits.
Source: Bloomberg, BetaShares.
Source: Bloomberg, BetaShares.
Top sub-category inflows (by $) – April 2021
| Sub-Category | Inflow Value |
| Australian Equities – Broad | $388,800,656 |
| International Equities – Developed World | $348,743,519 |
| Australian Bonds | $182,736,714 |
| Cash | $159,914,887 |
| Multi-Asset | $153,795,484 |
Top sub-category outflows (by $) – April 2021
| Sub-Category | Outflow Value |
| Australian Equities – Large Cap | ($8,373,082) |
| Oil | ($4,205,278) |
| Australian Equities – Geared | ($2,087,995) |