ULTUMUS August 2024 ETF Flows Commentary
Vanguard equity ETFs lead in US
Vanguard, the second largest global ETF issuer, garnered USD 70.11 billion of net inflows, double the $34.31 billion gained by the largest global provider, iShares. Most of Vanguard’s inflows, USD 65.78 billion, came from the US market.
Vanguard also claimed the largest individual ETF inflows with its S&P 500 tracker, VOO, and the more diversified all cap US equity VTI that also includes mid-caps and small caps, pulling in over USD 31 billion, well ahead of iShares’ IVV gaining just over USD 6 billion while the slightly more expensive SPY saw over USD 9 billion of outflows.
Vanguard did however see net outflows on some products, such as its VWO emerging markets equity tracker losing nearly USD 3 billion or about 5% of its assets.
iShares equity and bond ETFs lead in Europe
In Europe, the largest player, iShares, gained the largest inflows of USD 8.58 billion and also had all three top slots for individual ETFs. Its IWDA MSCI World equity tracker was the top single ETF for inflows of USD 1.74 billion; its core S&P 500 tracker, CSP1, was second at USD 1.5 billion, while ts short term US Treasury bonds tracker, IBO1, was third with USD 1.27 billion.
Though Vanguard is currently ranked as fourth largest in Europe, it got the second largest net inflows at USD 3.16 billion, well ahead of number two Xtrackers and number three Amundi at USD 1.18 billion and USD 0.69 billion respectively. Vanguard’s S&P 500 trackers VUAA and VUSA, and its FTSE World equity trackers VWRA and VWRL were all in the top twenty individual ETFs. The versions that accumulate dividend income raised more assets than those which distribute the income, possibly for reasons related to tax efficiency in some countries.
Xtrackers’ money market ETF, DBXT, got the fourth largest inflows at USD 1.11 billion.
Though it is only the eight biggest provider with 4.37% of the market, SPDR got the third largest inflows in Europe, partly from S&P 500 tracker SPY5.
Cathay continues gains in Asia
Cathay continues to punch above its weight on inflows, but different products were prominent this month. Its longer-term US Treasury ETF, Cathay US Treasury 20+ YR ET, gathered USD1.059 billion, the largest single ETF inflows, while the second largest inflows were into Cathay Sustainability High Dividend ETF, which we flagged in previous reports.
SPDR gains gold flows
In commodities, the largest provider, SPDR, also got the biggest inflows of USD 1.639 billion, mainly from gold ETFs, GLD and GLDM, while the second largest commodity ETF provider, iShares, saw outflows of just over USD 1 billion, mainly from its IAU physical gold ETF which has charges of 0.25%, a bit higher than GLDM’s 0.10%.
iShares wins most crypto inflows
iShares is also the largest crypto ETF provider and garnered about USD 1 billion of inflows, mainly for its bitcoin tracker IBIT, while the second largest, Grayscale, continues to see net outflows from its relatively expensive bitcoin and Ethereum products GBTC and ETH.
