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INDUSTRY SNAPS BACK TO ALL-TIME HIGHS AS TOP TWO ISSUERS EXTEND THEIR LEAD
In a mirror-image of global stockmarkets, the Australian ETF industry has regained its previous peak some 6 months since market volatility began in earnest back in February. The Australian ETF industry closed the month of July at $67.2B, an all-time end of month high, eclipsing the previous record from January of $66B. Read on for more details.
Australian ETP Market Cap: July 2001 – July 2020
Source: ASX, Chi-X, BetaShares
Market cap
- ASX Exchange Traded Product Market Cap: $67.2B1 – all time end-of-month high
- Market cap change for month: +2.0%, +$1.3B
- Market cap growth for the last 12 months: +26%, + $13.8B
Comment: Market cap closed at an all time end-of-month high at $67.2B. Industry FuM grew by $1.3B (a 2.0% month-on-month increase) with industry growth over the last 12 months of 26%, representing absolute growth of $13.8B over this period.
1. Includes total FuM for ETFs trading on both ASX & Chi-X
New money
- Net new money for month (units outstanding by % value): +$1.2B
Comment: With global sharemarkets flat during the month, essentially all of the industry growth this month came from net new money (as opposed to market movements) which totalled $1.2B.
Products
- 244 Exchange Traded Products trading on the ASX and Chi-X – 5 new products launched including including two new currency hedged versions of BetaShares global funds, BetaShares Global Sustainability Leaders ETF – Currency Hedged (ASX: HETH) and BetaShares Nasdaq 100 ETF – Currency Hedged (ASX: HNDQ).
Trading value
- ASX ETF trading value remained relatively high, albeit dropping back on recent record months. Total value traded was $6.6B, which was ~20% less than previous month’s value.
Performance
- Best performance this month came from precious metals, particularly gold and silver, along with gold miners. Given the accompanying rise in the AUD, performance in these exposures was best in currency hedged form via MNRS (Gold Miners, +18.6%) and QAU (Gold Bullion, +11.1%).
Top 5 category inflows (by $) – July 2020
Category | Inflow Value | |
International Equities | $547,081,145 | |
Fixed Income | $306,890,280 | |
Commodities | $202,053,534 | |
Cash | $151,469,470 | |
Short | $95,477,350 |
Top category outflows (by $) – July 2020
Category | Outflow Value | |
Australian Equities | ($192,848,419) |
Top sub-category inflows (by $) – July 2020
Sub-Category | Inflow Value | |
Australian Bonds | $240,703,838 | |
Gold | $202,412,522 | |
International Equities – Sector | $168,091,458 | |
International Equities – Developed World | $164,335,717 | |
Cash | $151,469,470 |
Top sub-category outflows (by $) – July 2020
Category | Outflow Value | |
Australian Equities – Broad | ($246,893,703) | |
Oil | ($21,311,402) | |
Australian Equities – High Yield | ($12,972,370) | |
Australian Equities – Geared | ($8,325,536) | |
International Equities – Geared | ($7,066,191) |
Comment: While the start of the year saw the highest level of flows into Australian Equities exposures, this month was notable for having net outflows in this category (-$192m). Instead, we saw a return to more defensive allocations – with Australian Bonds and Gold receiving the highest amount of net flows at a sub-category level. To the extent money went into equities, this was particularly in the technology sector. It was also notable that we saw two ethical ETFs in the top 10 products for flows this month, with ETHI and FAIR receiving ~$140m in flows between them.
ETF issuer flows
- With 7 months of the year completed, this month we examine ETF issuer flows which, for the year to date, have become highly concentrated to the top two issuers. Combined, the #1 issuer (BetaShares) and #2 issuer (Vanguard) have received >60% of all industry flows, with both receiving >3x the flows of their closest competitor. Notably, BetaShares had 9 of the top 10 products for net inflows this month and, at $730m in monthly flows, has, for the second month in a row, broken the all-time monthly net flow record in the industry.