Global ETF News Older than One Year
World Gold Council-Gold Demand Trends Full year and Q4 2018
January 31, 2019--Key highlights
Central banks added 651.5t to official gold reserves in 2018, the second highest yearly total on record.
Net purchases jumped to their highest since the end of US dollar convertibility into gold in 1971, as a greater pool of central banks turned to gold as a diversifier.
Annual jewellery demand was virtually unmoved: down just 1t from 2017.
Gains in China, the US and Russia broadly offset sharp losses in the Middle East. Indian demand was stable at 598t (-4t).
Source: World Gold Council
Global ETF Industry Set to Double in Next Five Years; Canadian Industry to See Even Faster Growth
January 31, 2019--2018 brought the advent of the asset allocation ETF, an industry disruptor
ETFs continue to prove their value through times of global market volatility
BMO GAM offers 77 mandates and has a market share of 31 per cent in Canada
BMO Global Asset Management (BMO GAM) today released its annual ETF Outlook Report, which examines the Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) industry and highlights the trends expected to drive the year ahead.
According to the report, the global ETF industry is projected to double to more than US$10 trillion over the next five years. The Canadian industry is expected to grow at a faster rate to C$400 billion by 2024.
Looking Back at 2018
The global ETF market hit a record high of US$4.7 trillion assets under management (AUM) at the end of the year. There were 6,483 ETFs globally, up almost 12 per cent from the previous year.
The Canadian ETF market grew to C$156 billion AUM with inflows of C$20 billion.
The Canadian equity ETF with the most inflows last year was BMO S&P/TSX Capped Composite Index ETF (ticker: ZCN), with more than C$1 billion in net flows.
Source: BMO Financial Group
ETFGI reports assets invested in actively managed ETFs and ETPs listed globally attract inflows of US$628 million during December
January 30, 2019--ETFGI, a leading independent research and consultancy firm covering trends in the global ETF/ETP ecosystem, reported today that actively managed ETFs and ETPs listed globally gathered net inflows of US$628 million during December.
Total assets invested in the global actively managed ETF and ETP industry fell 2.39% by the end of the month, from US$109 billion at the end of November, to US$107 Bn, according to ETFGI's December 2018 Active ETF and ETP industry landscape insights report, an annual paid-for research subscription service. (All dollar values in USD unless otherwise noted.)
Highlights
During 2018, assets invested in the Active ETF/ETP industry have increased 33.65%.
Net new assets gathered by actively managed ETFs and ETPs listed globally were $628 Mn in December.
Source: ETFGI
ETFGI reports Smart Beta ETFs and ETPs listed globally gather net inflows of US$12.42 Bn during December 2018
January 30, 2019--ETFGI, a leading independent research and consultancy firm covering trends in the global ETF/ETP ecosystem, reported today that equity-based Smart Beta ETFs and ETPs listed globally gathered net inflows of US$12.42 billion during December.
Total assets invested in the global Smart Beta ETF and ETP industry decreased 7.08%, from US$665 billion at the end of November, to US$618 Bn, according to ETFGI’s December 2018 ETF and ETP Smart Beta industry landscape insights report, an annual paid-for research subscription service. (All dollar values in USD unless otherwise noted.)
Highlights
In 2018, Smart Beta ETFs/ETPs attracted $77.62 Bn in net new assets.
Over the year, 141 Smart Beta ETFs/ETPs were launched by 72 providers.
Source: ETFGI
World Gold Council-Cryptocurrencies are not a safe-haven
January 29, 2019--In Q4 2018, as global stock markets experienced their worst quarter since 2009, cryptocurrencies had a prime opportunity to demonstrate qualities associated with safe havens like gold.
However, cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, behaved like risky assets and fell while gold rallied.
Source: World Gold Council
Global Robotics: potential value opportunities following the market pull back
January 29, 2019--As a high growth sector with strong exposure to Asian markets, it's no surprise that global robotics companies suffered a setback with the downturn in global equity markets in 2018.
That said, given the strong longer-term outlook for robotics remains generally undiminished, the recent pull back in prices has improved valuations and may provide investors an entry point into this attractive investment theme.*
Market pull back drags down robots
Along with the downturn in global markets and Asian sharemarkets in particular, many listed global robotic companies suffered a share price correction last year.
Source: BetaShares
First Bridge Data'ETF 20/20': Exchange Traded Funds-Reviewing 2018
January 28, 2019--Key Highlights
This month's report briefly summarizes Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) trends globally in 2018. It uses data from the First Bridge ETF database that includes all global ETPs.
Key industry developments in 2018 included the US SEC's proposed rule 6c-11 to simplify ETF approvals; the issuance of a regulatory summary statement by the Central Bank of Ireland; the creation of the Communications Services GICS sector and the addition of Chinese 'A' Shares to MSCI's emerging market indices.
Global ETF assets were $4.89T as of December 31, 2018, flat from the previous year-end with net inflows offsetting market declines.
The market share for the top index providers was virtually unchanged from year-end 2017. Among the fund sponsors, leaders Blackrock (36%) and Vanguard (19%) did not significantly change their market share in 2018. State Street's global market share declined by one percent to 13%, with Invesco gaining 1% after its acquisition of Guggenheim's ETF business in the US to reach 4% of global ETF assets.
Active ETFs increased their share of global ETF assets from 1.6% to 2.2% in 2018. Smart beta ETFs also grew share from 9.7% to 9.9%.
There were 1728 new listings globally in 2018, including cross-listings.
In a year that saw equity volatility spike up, VIX futures was the best performing ETF category in the US in 2018, along with cocoa futures and Qatar equities. Rare earth metals, oil services and Turkish equities were the weakest ETF categories.
Source: First Bridge Data
Investors Remain Enamored by Passively Managed Funds in 2018
January 25, 2019--Passively managed funds (including conventional funds and ETFs) attracted $445.1 billion in 2018, while their actively managed counterparts handed back some $282.9 billion (ex-money market funds) for the same time period.
Except for the commodities funds macro-group, investors appeared to prefer passively managed funds for all of Lipper's broad-based macro-groups, a change from 2017 when investors were as equally enamored by actively managed taxable fixed income funds and municipal debt funds as they were of their passively managed brethren.
Source: Refinitiv
IMF Working Paper-Commodity Terms of Trade: A New Database
January 24, 2019--This paper presents a comprehensive database of country-specific commodity price indices for 182 economies covering the period 1962-2018. For each country, the change in the international price of up to 45 individual commodities is weighted using commodity-level trade data.
The database includes a commodity terms-of-trade index which proxies the windfall gains and losses of income associated with changes in world prices as well as additional country-specific series, including commodity export and import price indices. We provide indices that are constructed using, alternatively, fixed weights (based on average trade flows over several decades) and time-varying weights (which can account for time variation in the mix of commodities traded and the overall importance of commodities in economic activity). The paper also discusses the dynamics of commodity terms of trade across country groups and their influence on key macroeconomic aggregates.
view the IMF Working Paper-Commodity Terms of Trade: A New Database
Source: IMF
Committee on the Global Financial System report outlines ways to boost domestic capital markets
January 23, 2019--Policymakers and stakeholders can do more to promote the development of robust and efficient capital markets, according to a new report by the Committee on the Global Financial System (CGFS).
Establishing viable capital markets finds that large differences persist in the size of capital markets across advanced and emerging economies. Emerging-economy markets have been catching up with their more advanced peers, but the gap has not yet been closed.
Source: BIS
