While markets petered out toward the end of the last day of the first quarter, U.S. equities and stock exchange traded funds still etched out a phenomenal run over the first three months of the year, with the S&P 500 recording its best quarterly gain since 2015.
U.S. stocks took off over the first quarter, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 5.5%, the Nasdaq Composite 10.2% higher and the S&P 500 up 6.3%.
The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEArca: SPY), iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (NYSEArca: IVV) and Vanguard 500 Index (NYSEArca: VOO) rose 6.1% year-to-date while the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (NYSEArca: DIA) gained 5.4% and PowerShares QQQ (NasdaqGM: QQQ) increased 12.0%.
U.S. stocks maintained their post-election rally in the first three months of the year, with sectors expected to benefit from changing U.S. policies leading the charge.
These Trump trades, though, lost some momentum in the later weeks of the quarter on concerns over President Donald Trump’s ability to enact its pro-business agenda in light of its recently failed attempt to push through an Obamacare replacement in a Republican controlled Congress.
The top performing non-leveraged ETFs of the first three months include the the Columbia India Small Cap ETF (NYSEArca: SCIN) up 31.2%, VanEck Vectors India Small-Cap Index ETF (NYSEArca: SCIF) up 29.5% and iShares MSCI India Small-Cap ETF (BATS: SMIN) up 28.5%.
New Delhi projects India’s economy could expand between 6.75% and 7.5% in 2017-18 as the government shifts tactics on its economy.