Reflationary trends were the primary driver which led to two records in global exchange-traded products (ETPs) being broken in February, which saw the highest year-to-date flows on record as well as the best February on record for asset gathering.
The data, published today in BlackRock’s ETP Landscape report for February, found that global ETPs brought in $62.9 billion (€59.6 billion) during last month, largely fuelled by strength in US equities. The year-to-date figure stood at $124 billion.
Flows into European ETPs reached $19.8 billion in the year-to-date in February, making it the second largest ever February on record.
Patrick Mattar, of BlackRock’s iShares EMEA capital markets team, said that over the past year there had been $29.1 billion of flows into equities while fixed income took $28.3 billion.
“This is the first time since May 2016 that equity flows have surpassed fixed-income on a rolling 12-month basis, which could be a sign of the start of a prolonged revival for equity flows.”
Mattar added that flows into European mid- and small-cap equities of $303 million surpassed large-cap flows of $246 million.
“This is only the second time ever that, in a month where both European large caps and small caps received inflows, small caps gathered more assets,” he said.
“This reflects a global investor trend favouring domestic exposures, potentially reflecting fears around the decline in globalisation.”
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