Global investment in exchange-traded products (ETPs) grew by US$164.84 billion (€144.80 billion) to $4.82 trillion during the last quarter of 2018.
The latest quarterly report of research and consultancy ETFGI indicates that this aggregate total, invested across 7620 ETF and ETP products listed worldwide, represents a decline of 0.49% year-on-year. This contraction was driven by sharp falls in the major indices over the past quarter.
Asset growth in the global ETF/ETP segment continues to outshine the global hedge fund industry. A report by Hedge Fund Research says that assets in hedge funds contracted globally by 3.24% to $3.11 trillion (€2.73 trillion), invested in 8311 hedge funds.
Growth in assets invested in ETFs and ETPs has outpaced that in the hedge fund industry each year since the financial crisis of 2008. Total assets in the ETF/ETP sector first surpassed those in hedge funds in Q2 2015 and this gap has continued to widen.
The top 20 ETFs by net new assets collectively accumulated $206 billion (€181 billion) in fund inflows during 2018. The TOPIX Exchange Traded Fund, ranked top of the table according to this criterion, attracted $22.29 bn (€19.58 bn) in net inflows over the 12 months.
December 2018 represented the 59th consecutive month that the ETF/ETP sector has experienced net inwards investment.
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