Global X ETFs has published its April report on Thematic ETFs from Europe and the US, revealing that, over the month, European UCITS Thematic ETFs saw USD1.2 billion of net inflows.
Global X ETFs reports that at the end of April 2021, there were 61 thematic UCITS ETFs totalling USD35.9 billion in assets under management (AUM), rising by 6 per cent on the month. All categories recorded a monthly increase of AUMs in April.
Climate change related themes attracted the largest net inflows in April (USD825 million), the firm says, with most of the net new inflows going into clean and renewable energy thematic ETFs (USD629 million).
Flows into FinTech reached USD148 million, with most of the net new inflows going into blockchain thematic ETFs, the firm says, commenting that cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase’s IPO on the Nasdaq on April 14th has likely been a tailwind to blockchain thematic funds. Coinbase is the largest crypto exchange in the US with 56 million users and is the first to go public.
Health related themes recorded USD143 million of inflows on the month, led by healthcare innovations. The firm comments that leading genomics companies, such as Illumina and Pacific Biosciences of California, reported strong earnings growth in Q1 due to increased COVID-19 surveillance efforts which require next generation sequencing technology. Besides, M&A activities may have also provided a boost to this theme with Microsoft being close to acquiring Nuance Communications.
IN the US, Global X ETFs reports that US Thematic ETFs saw USD3.2 billion of net inflows. US infrastructure ETFs recorded strong monthly inflows again in April (USD870 million) and the largest AUM increase (34 per cent), the firm says.
As with the UCITS Thematic market, climate change themes attracted large net inflows in April (USD589 million) led by CleanTech (USD458 million).
Cybersecurity thematic ETFs saw large net outflows in April (USD198 million), according to Global X ETFs, and E-commerce also recorded net outflows of USD168 million last month, amid an acceleration of the vaccines’ rollouts in the US and Europe alongside easing social restrictions.
