Australia’s exchange-traded fund (ETF) industry has reached a new record high of $41.5 billion in funds under management (FUM) after an impressive month of growth, BetaShares said in its Australian ETF Review for August 2018.
August saw the industry’s FUM grow by 3.7 per cent or $1.5 billion, two thirds of which was driven by asset appreciation, and the other third or $549.9 million from net new money flowing into the industry.
BetaShares CEO, Alex Vynokur, said the ETF industry had reached “another significant milestone”.
“Breaking the $40 billion barrier reflects the increased demand from investors and showcases the versatility of ETFs. ETFs give investors access to intelligent building blocks with which to build diversified portfolios,” he said.
International equities continued to dominate inflows, accounting for over $312 million, followed by fixed income, which attracted $180 million in net inflows, BetaShares said.
In line with this trend, international technology exposures were the top performers in August, with the BetaShares Global Cybersecurity ETF (ASX: HACK) and BetaShares NASDAQ 100 ETF (ASX: NDQ) returning 12.7 per cent and 8.9 per cent, respectively.
“Investors in technology exposures enjoyed very strong performance in the month of August, exemplifying one of the key benefits of ETFs – with investors able to easily access growth industries, such as cybersecurity, that have limited availability via Australian shares,” Vynokur said.
No new products were launched during the month, with the total number of exchange-traded products trading on the ASX remaining at 231.
However, Vynokur expected this number to increase for the remainder of the year following recent new product announcements.
