Net inflows of USD24.5bn in December and positive market performance pushed assets in the global exchange-traded fund and exchange-traded product industry to a new record high of USD2.4trn at year-end 2013, according to ETFGI.
The global ETF/ETP industry had 5,090 ETFs/ETPs, with 10,172 listings, from 218 providers on 60 exchanges at the end of 2013.
“After spending most of 2013 wondering when and how the Fed would taper its QE scheme, investors felt a degree of positive cheer and certainty after the Fed announced in December that the US economy was strong enough for it to begin to taper by USD10bn in January 2014,” says Deborah Fuhr, managing partner at ETFGI.
In December 2013, ETFs/ETPs saw net inflows of USD24.5bn. Equity ETFs/ETPs gathered the largest net inflows with USD28.3bn, followed by fixed income ETFs/ETPs with USD403m, while commodity ETFs/ETPs experienced net outflows of USD5.0bn.
In 2013, global ETF/ETP assets increased by 23 per cent based on positive market performance and net inflows of USD242.8bn, but did not surpass the USD265.0bn in net inflows in 2012. Equity ETFs/ETPs gathered a record level of net inflows in 2013 with USD240.1bn, followed by fixed income ETFs/ETPs with USD22.3bn, while commodity ETFs/ETPs experienced a record level of USD39.7bn in net outflows in 2013.
iShares topped the rankings based on net inflows with USD61.0bn in 2013, narrowly beating Vanguard with USD60.2bn. SPDR finished third with USD18.3bn, PowerShares took fourth place with USD15.4bn and WisdomTree gathered the fifth largest net inflows with USD14.4bn.
In 2013, 611 new ETFs/ETPs were launched by 102 providers which, is slightly higher than the 595 ETFs/ETPs launched in 2012 by 104 providers. The 245 ETF/ETP closures in 2013 are higher than the 206 ETFs/ETPs that closed in 2012, and more than three times the 72 that closed in 2011.
