Promoters of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in Europe saw net inflows of €5.2 billion throughout March, while assets under management (AuM) in the European ETF sector increased by €17.9 billion to a total of €625.2 billion.
The increase in AuM was generated by a combination of inflows and “a positive performance of the underlying market” according to industry analysts the Lipper team at Refinitiv.
“The inflows into ETFs were a sign that investors had returned to the markets, as stock markets globally recovered further over the course of March,” they said in a report on the European ETF market’s performance throughout last month.
Refinitiv found it “surprising”, however, that bond ETFs were the asset type recording the highest net inflow of €6.2 billion for March.
Equity ETFs, on the other hand, had the highest outflows (€0.8 billion) compared to other asset types in the industry, despite having the largest market share of AuM at 69%.
“With regard to the overall number of products, it was not surprising equity funds (€504.3 billion) held the majority of the assets, followed by bond funds (€190.4 billion),” Refinitiv said of their findings for March.
iShares was the overall best-selling ETF promoter in Europe for March with €4.1 billion of inflows, putting it far ahead of SPDR and Amundi ETF with €1 billion and €0.6 billion of inflows respectively.
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