The Australian exchange traded fund (ETF) industry has recorded a strong start to 2019, helped by the market’s rally after the turmoil at the end of the last year, according to BetaShares’ Review January 2019.
The first month of the year saw its second largest monthly assets increase on record, with monthly growth of 4.3 per cent or $1.7 billion and hitting its all-time high of 442.5 billion in funds under management (FUM).
According to Betashares’ study, price increases accounted for 60 per cent of the growth while the remaining 40 per cent came from net industry inflows ($700 million).
Similarly to the prior months, the international equities category attracted the highest amount of net inflows ($242 million) and was followed by fixed income with net inflows of $188 million, of which Australian Bond exposures accounted for $162 million.
BetaShares’ managing director, Alex Vynokur, said: “Yet despite these rallies, we are still noticing that investors remain concerned about equity markets and are continuing to allocate towards more defensive exchange traded products to ensure their portfolios are well-diversified.”
