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Investing January 12, 2010
ETFs See Healthy Asset Gain
January 12, 2010 (PLANSPONSOR.com) – The year 2009 was kind to the ETF market, with a whopping 45% jump in assets to $775.8 billion as of December 31, according to the latest data from State Street Global Investors.
Reported by Fred Schneyer
A State Street report said December assets were up $36.4 billion, or 4.9% over November. Year over year, the number of ETFs was up by 10%.
The data also showed investors were apparently particularly keen on commodity ETFs (a 105%-asset jump for the year), fixed income ETFs (up 78% for the year), and international ETFs (also up 78% for the year). Fixed Income funds crossed the $100 billion mark for the year with a 2.1% December increase and a 78.3% year-over-year hike.
The Size and International categories saw the biggest leaps in absolute terms, up $20.8 billion and $5.3 billion, respectively, in December over the previous month. Gains in the Size category saw the Large Cap, Mid Cap, and Small Cap areas with $16.5 billion, $1.6 billion, and $2.6 billion December increases, respectively.
Among the sector funds, only Energy and Consumer Staples fell in absolute terms. The REIT, Technology, and Utilities sectors were all up over $1 billion in December.
Black Rock, State Street, and Vanguard continue to dominate the ETF market, according to the data. Together, the three account for 84.1% of the U.S.-listed ETF market.
The top three U.S. ETFs in terms of dollar volume traded for the month were the SPDR S&P 500, iShares Russell 2000, and PowerShares QQQ.
The latest data report is available here.