ETFs Feel the Fall Chill In September

October 13, 2008 at 3:00 pm by Tom Lydon

ETF Performance The chill in September that was felt among the markets also filtered into exchange traded funds (ETFs).

Citigroup Global Markets conducted the research and found that the average ETF was down 9.3%, while the S&P 500 was down 8.9% for the month.

Eric Rosenbaum for Index Universe reports that the number one best-performing ETF was the ProShares UltraShort Basic Materials (SMN) up 52% for the month.

Short Basic Materials Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)

The study also found that new ETF issuances ground to a halt, as no funds were launched last month, and there were actually net liquidations. The total number of closings this year stands at 40, and it’s the first year the industry has seen liquidations since 2006.

The best-performing equity ETF was the WisdomTree Total Earnings Fund (EXT), down 2.6% for the month. Among the broad-based equity funds, performance was down a total of 10.45%. The biggest loser among equity funds for the month was the SPA Market Grader 40 ETF (SFV), down 18.8%.

EXT is represented by the black line; SFV by the green line.

Equity Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)