Total assets in globally traded exchange-traded products topped US$4 trillion for the first time as of the end of April 2017, according to ETFGI, a London-based research and consulting firm that tracks the exchange-traded fund and overall ETP industry.
ETFs and ETPs collectively attracted record net inflows of $38 billion in April, which was the 39th consecutive month of net inflows. Year-to-date inflows through April was a record $235.2 billion, which easily topped inflows of $81 billion in the year-earlier period.
iShares gathered the largest net ETF/ETP inflows in April with $24 billion, followed by Vanguard with $10.2 billion and Schwab ETFs with $2.5 billion.
And iShares has attracted the largest net ETF/ETP inflows year-to-date with $89.3 billion, followed by Vanguard with $53.1 billion and Nomura AM with $10.2 billion..
“Investors continued to favor equities over fixed income and commodities as equity markets performed positively in April,” said Deborah Fuhr, managing partner and a founder of ETFGI.