Year-to-date global ETP flows are up 25% versus the first half of last year to $123.9bn. The Q2 total of $90.6bn exceeded any other quarter in the past five years, the firm said.
In terms of the most popular asset classes, European equity, Japanese equity, global and global ex-US equity have been big contributors to the totals this year, while US and emerging market equity flows have improved after a slow start to the year.
US equity ETP flows of $21bn were led by large cap and sector funds, while European equity added $4bn in response to monetary policy easing by the ECB.
Emerging market equity funds saw $7.7bn come in during June moving it back into positive territory on the year. This was helped by continued momentum for broad emerging market funds, a more stable outlook for China’s economy and the strength of Taiwanese stocks, BlackRock said.
Flows into India were another factor in the performance of emerging markets, driven by positive sentiment on the prospect for economic reforms following Modi’s election victory.
Fixed income ETPs slowed to $0.4bn due to investor anticipation of higher rates with Treasury outflows offsetting broad US and emerging markets debt inflows.
“Q2 was the best quarter we have seen in the last 5 years. Year-to-date global ETP flows reached $123.9bn, up 25% from the first half of last year,” said Ursula Marchioni, head of ETP research EMEA at iShares. “June was the strongest month since the summer of 2013 with global ETPs attracting more than $36bn of inflows,” she added.
