May industry flows of exchange-traded funds and similar products were of $35.1 billion globally, according to BlackRock.
Flows were bolstered by investments in US equities, which total $26.1 billion or nearly three-fourths of the total industry new money.
Strong corporate earnings and corporate tax cuts underpinned this appetite, according to the firm’s ‘ETP landscape report’.
Global fixed income “continued to see steady flows” bringing in $6.3 billion, mainly in investment grade corporate with $2.4 billion. US treasuries saw $1.4 billion.
Global developed markets equities continued to see inflows for the fifth consecutive month with $8 billion in May, bolstering the year to date flows to $43.1 billion.
Wei Li, regional head of iShares investment strategy at BlackRock, said there had been strong buying of gold amid political uncertainty in Europe and ongoing trade tensions surrounding the US.
Inflows into gold exchange-traded products (ETPs) in May stood at $1.2 billion, while flow levels were also seeing their highest quarterly level since the US election.
Li also said European equity ETPs led outflows (-$3.7 billion) and that emerging markets equities had outflows for the first time since January 2017 (-$642 million).
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