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Investing December 1, 2003
ETF Ranks Continue to Swell in October
December 1, 2003 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Exchange-traded
funds continued to enjoy strong investor support in October,
swelling by more than $9 billion, according to an industry
report.
Reported by Nevin E. Adams
Most of the $9.13 billion increase in exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, came from equity index ETFs, which grew by $9.02 billion to $124.57 billion during the month, according to the Investment Company Institute. Assets of all exchange-traded funds grew to $128.89 billion in October.
Bond index ETF assets increased by $115 million to $4.32 billion during the month, while assets of domestic equity ETFs increased by $7.85 billion, and international equity ETF assets increased by $1.17 billion.
An exchange-traded fund is an investment company with shares that trade intraday on stock exchanges at market-determined prices. Investors may buy or sell ETF shares through a broker just as they would the shares of any publicly traded company (see Black Box: Exchange-Traded Funds ).
Exchange “Changes”
During October, the value of all ETF shares issued exceeded that of shares redeemed by $1.69 billion. Equity index ETFs experienced a positive net issuance of $1.51 billion, while bond ETFs experienced a positive net issuance of $179 million, according to the ICI.
Gross issuance of all ETFs decreased in October to $7.58 billion from $10.90 billion in September, while redemptions decreased to $5.88 billion from $6.88 billion in September (see ICI: ETFs Add $2.45 Billion in New Assets in September ).
Seventy ETFs tracked domestic stock indexes in October, with assets of $114.03 billion. Forty-one ETFs tracked international equity indexes and held assets of $10.53 billion, while five ETFs tracked bond indexes in the ICI report.