The Australian exchange traded funds (ETF) industry closed July at $67.2 billion, an all-time end of month high, according to BetaShares.
At the same time, funds under management (FUM) grew by $1.3 billion (a 2% month-on-month increase) with industry growth over the last 12 months of 26%, representing absolute growth of $13.8 billion over this period.
Also, all of the industry growth this month came from net new money, as apposed to market movements, and totalled $1.2 billion, with the best performance this month coming from precious metals, particularly gold and silver, along with gold miners, the firm said.
“While the start of the year saw the highest level of flows into Australian equities exposures, this month was notable for having net outflows in this category (-$192m),” BetaShares said.
“Instead, we saw a return to more defensive allocations – with Australian bonds and gold receiving the highest amount of net flows at a sub-category level.
To the extent money went into equities, this was particularly in the technology sector.”
The product development activity continued to be strong throughout the month, according to BetaShares, with five new products launches and an entrance of a new issuer to the market via the Chi-X exchange with Janus Henderson launching an income-oriented diversified fixed income product.
