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Investing April 8, 2013
ETF Flows Top $17B in March
April 8, 2013 (PLANSPONSOR.com) – Exchange-traded fund (ETF) assets increased $41.8 billion, or 3%, in March.
Reported by PLANSPONSOR staff
According to the latest ETF Snapshot report from State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), 1,234 ETFs with assets totaling $1.5 trillion were managed by 38 ETF managers as of March 31.
In March, flows topped $17.3 billion, as fixed income and large cap ETFs attracted $5 billion and $4 billion of inflows respectively. Emerging markets ETFs experienced the most significant outflows during the month, with $5.7 billion leaving the category.
The S&P 500 returned 3.8%, while the MSCI EAFE gained 0.8%. Commodities were also positive, with the S&P GSCI up 0.8% and Gold increasing 0.6%. U.S. Bonds were positive, with the Barclays U.S. Treasury Index and the Barclays U.S. Aggregate Index both increasing 0.1%.
The top three managers in the U.S. ETF marketplace were BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard. Collectively, they account for approximately 83% of the U.S.-listed ETF market. The top three ETFs in terms of dollar volume traded for the month were the SPDR S&P 500 [SPY], iShares Russell 2000 [IWM] and iShares MSCI Emerging Markets [EEM].