Over $1 billion in inflows went into international equity exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with two funds receiving over $150 million each in February, according to Betashares.
According to its monthly ETF report, Betashares said these inflows accounted for two-thirds of the total $1.6 billion in inflows seen during February and was the fourth consecutive month that international equities had seen the largest inflows.
Last month, the sector received $985 million in inflows, but they had been muted during 2023 with only $2.9 billion in inflows during the whole year.
This included the VanEck MSCI World Ex-Australia Quality ETF which gained $177 million, and VanEck MSCI International Small Companies Quality ETF which gained $155 million.
The first VanEck fund is one of the top five largest ETFs by market cap with $5.3 billion in assets under management. The firm saw $716 million in overall inflows during the month.
Other popular international ETFs included iShares Core MSCI World ex Australia ESG Leaders (AUD Hedged) ETF ($111 million), Vanguard MSCI Index International Shares ETF ($109 million), and Talaria Global Equity Fund (Managed Fund) ($74 million).
The $4.4 billion Betashares Australia 200 ETF was the only Australian equity ETF to sit in the top 10 this month with $148 million in inflows.
The second-most popular asset class was fixed income, but this received a far smaller volume of inflows at $300 million.
Total asset growth was 3.4 per cent month-on-month to bring assets under management to $189.4 billion, which Betashares attributed to a “combination of asset value appreciation and investor net inflows”. Over the last 12 months, the industry has grown by 35.5 per cent or $49.6 billion.
Looking at performance, the firm said crypto products rose strongly on the back of approval of US-listed bitcoin ETFs. In January, the US Securities and Exchange Commission approved 11 spot bitcoin ETFs for trading on Cboe, Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange, including from providers such as BlackRock, Fidelity and VanEck.
Betashares Crypto Innovators rose by 35 per cent, Global X 21Shares Bitcoin rose by 47 per cent, and Global X 21Shares Ethereum rose by 51 per cent.
GlobalX was the first ETF product provider to launch spot bitcoin and ethereum ETFs in the APAC region.
