Blackrock said European equity ETFs have now had 13 consecutive months of net inflows –the longest run on record.
European investors chipped in more than $2bn (€1.7bn) in September, as a 5-month period of continuous euro strength/dollar weakness came to an end. The trend breach in currency markets saw US investors leave European equities, however. “$0.5B has been withdrawn from US-listed European equity ETPs over the last two months,” said Blackrock.
They instead refocused their attention on US equities, which received a boost from renewed hopes of tax reform. US small cap ETFs were the prime beneficiary, seeing global net inflows of $2.8bn.
Robotics craze
But September really was the month of the robotics ETFs, which experienced their biggest ever monthly inflows, adding a net $780m.
At the start of 2017, the four global ETFs providing exposure to companies that could benefit from the increasing use of robotics had total assets under management of just $415m. “Today their combined AUM stands at $3.6Bbn. If we include mutual funds, the combined universe of 16 funds currently has an AUM of $14.7bn, up from less than $300m in 2015,” said Blackrock.
