MAY 2022: INDUSTRY AUM FALLS FOR THE FOURTH MONTH THIS YEAR, WHILE FLOWS REMAIN POSITIVE
Market declines caused the Australian ETF industry to fall in value in May, even though net flows into the industry remained positive. Read on for details, including best performers, asset flow categories and more.
Source: ASX, Chi-X, BetaShares.
Market cap
- Australian Exchange Traded Funds Market Cap: $131.3B
- Market cap change for month: -1.6%, -$2.2B
- Market cap growth for the last 12 months: 17.6%, + $19.6B
Comment: The industry has received positive net flows for each month of 2022 so far, but market declines have now caused monthly declines in all but 1 month in the year to date. Industry AuM fell 1.6% (-$2.2B) month on month, ending May at $131.3B.
New money
- Net flows for month: +$1.3B
Comment: Even with Australian and global sharemarkets falling, ETF investors continued to invest, with net flows of $1.3B, a level that has now remained constant for the last 3 months in a row.
Products
- 292 Exchange Traded Products trading on the ASX.
- 4 new products launched – all of which were cryptocurrency ETFs on CBOE (2 BTC products, 2 ETH products) – all of which launched to very muted flows.
- 1 product closed this month (ETFS SELF ETF), 1 single bond product matured.
Comment: After a tremendous amount of anticipation and much fanfare, May saw the launch of the first cryptocurrency ETFs in Australia, providing access to Bitcoin and Ether. While the inception of these ETFs is a significant milestone for the development of the ETF industry, it seems as though, for now at least, it was the media and issuers that were most excited about ‘winning the race’ to launch these products, with actual ETF investors reacting in a very subdued way. At the end of the month the 4 products that launched combined had a total of only $13.8m between them, with average net flows per product of ~$3m for the month.
Trading value
- ASX ETF trading value increased 48% month on month to reach $11B, the third highest monthly ASX trading value of all time
Performance
- The best performing funds in May were energy related, with our Global Energy Companies ETF (ASX: FUEL) rising ~13%, and our Crude Oil Index ETF (ASX: OOO) rising ~11%.
Comment: Industry growth over the last 12 months has been 18%, or a total of $19.6B.
Top 5 Category inflows (by $) – May 2022
| Category | Inflow Value |
| Australian Equities | $917,059,550 |
| Fixed Income | $359,955,384 |
| International Equities | $110,135,079 |
| Commodities | $106,924,970 |
| Multi-Asset | $73,606,629 |
Comment: In terms of category flows, the industry flows pivoted back to broad Australian equities, after a few months of flow leadership in the Global equities category. Australian equities ETFs took in the overwhelming share of flows this month (~$917m), followed by Fixed Income (~$359m) and International Equities (~$110m).
Top Category outflows (by $) – May 2022
| Category | Inflow Value |
| Cash | ($244,372,262) |
| Short | ($49,390,526) |
Comment: Like last month, we saw some profit taking in short exposures which once again experienced strong positive performance as sharemarkets fell. Cash exposures were also sold down as yields rose.
Source: Bloomberg, Betashares.
Top Sub-Category inflows (by $) – May 2022
| Sub-Category | Inflow Value |
| Australian Equities – Broad | $830,317,217 |
| Australian Bonds | $413,069,639 |
| International Equities – US | $168,718,677 |
| Gold | $92,199,655 |
| Multi-Asset | $73,606,629 |
Top Sub-Category outflows (by $) – May 2022
| Sub-Category | Inflow Value |
| Cash | ($244,372,262) |
| International Equities – Sector | ($93,937,892) |
| International Equities – Developed World | ($82,798,122) |
| Global Bonds | ($53,114,256) |
| Australian Equities – Short | ($28,185,017) |
Investor & founder with a Financial Services & Fintech focus. Co-founder of Betashares. Passionate about entrepreneurship and startups.
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