Assets in exchange-traded products (ETPs) in Europe rose by a net $32 billion (€24 billion) in the first half of the year, a growth rate that would take total assets to more than half a trillion dollars by year-end if it persists.
“The positive equity market performance has helped to improve investor confidence during the first half of 2014,” says Deborah Fuhr, managing partner at ETFGI, a research firm that provided the data.
Equity products have certainly been in favour in recent weeks. Almost all of the net $5.8 billion that European investors put into ETPs in June went to equity products, with US and emerging market equity funds particularly popular.
So far this year, equity ETPs accounted for $18.5 billion of the net flows in Europe, compared with $12.3 billion for fixed income products and a net outflow of $427 million for commodity products.
iShares, the ETF division of BlackRock, has gathered the largest share of year-to-date European flows by some margin, a net $12.9 billion. In contrast, Lyxor has has gathered $3.6 billion and UBS GAM $3.4 billion.
Europe accounts for about a fifth of global ETP assets, according to ETFGI data. The US continues to dominate the market with assets of $1.9 trillion – more than 70% of the global total.
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