Industry Breaks the $40B Barrier
The Australian ETF industry grew very strongly in August reaching a new record high of $41.5B. The industry grew a rapid 3.7% in the month ($1.5B), 2/3 of which was driven by asset appreciation particularly in the U.S. sharemarket. Read on for details of the month in ETFs.
Market cap
- ASX Exchange Traded Funds Market Cap: $41.47B – new record high
- Market cap growth for month: 3.7%, + $1.49M
- Market cap growth for the last 12 months: 34%, + $10.6B
New money
- New unit growth for month (units outstanding by number): +2.5%
- Net new money (units outstanding by $ value): +$549.9 M
Comment: Net inflows remained strong not withstanding the asset growth with ~$550m of net new money flowing into the industry.
Products
- 231 Exchange Traded Products trading on the ASX
Comment: For the second month in a row no new products were launched – however a number of new product announcements were made in the month, so we continue to expect a number of new funds to be launched by year end.
Trading value
- Trading value +15% on previous month
Performance
- Technology exposures were the top performers in August led by the BetaShares Global Cybersecurity ETF (ASX: HACK) which returned 12.8%, followed by BetaShares Nasdaq 100 ETF (ASX: NDQ) with 9% return
Top 5 Category Inflows (by $) – August 2018
Category | Inflow Value |
International Equities | $312,095,410 |
Fixed Income | $184,938,430 |
Cash | $52,289,701 |
Multi-Asset | $36,677,869 |
Australian Listed Property | $15,467,172 |
Comment: As has been the case for each of the 8 months so far this year, international equities continued to be the largest category for inflows, with the second largest category once again being fixed income, which this month >$180m.
Top Category Outflows (by $) – August 2018
Category | Outflow Value |
Australian Equities | ($52,948,261) |
Currency | ($18,545,253) |
Comment: Net outflows were relatively limited this month, with some outflows in broad Australian equities. In addition, US dollar investors continued to take profits as the AUD weakened further.
Top Sub-Category inflows (by $) – August 2018
Category | Inflow Value |
International Equities – Developed World | $182,535,994 |
Australian Bonds | $162,982,723 |
Cash | $52,289,701 |
International Equities – Sector | $52,275,416 |
International Equities – US | $41,412,153 |
Top Sub-Category Outflows (by $) – August 2018
Category | Outflow Value |
Australian Equities – Broad | ($72,264,096) |
Currency | ($18,545,253) |
Australian Equities – High Yield | ($13,447,192) |
Australian Equities – Large Cap | ($7,446,840) |
International Equities – Europe | ($5,062,768) |