The exchange traded fund (ETF) industry has exploded in the first two months of this year, launching a number of new offerings and pulling in assets at a nice clip.
According to National Stock Exchange, the assets flowing into U.S. listed ETFs and exchange traded notes (ETNs) moved up to a new record of about $1.02 trillion at January 2011 month-end. [ETF Assets Riding On Momentum.]
Although the numbers reflect a 9% annual growth rate for the month, it’s a slight slowdown from January, which saw a 12% asset growth rate. The drop-off doesn’t indicate any industry slowdown, and let’s not forget: February is a shorter month.
Murray Coleman for Barron’s reports that BlackRock’s iShares family of ETFs had $1.8 billion in net inflows during the month, about $5 billion more than the previous month. [February ETF Performance Report.]
Other highlights from the report include:
- ETF/ETN net cash inflows for the month totaled more than $7.4 billion, including $1.2 billion on ETNs.
- Total U.S. Equity led all product categories with over $3.7 billion in net cash inflows.
- ETF/ETN notional trading volume during February 2011 totaled almost $1.25 trillion, representing almost 27% of all U.S. equity trading volume.
- At the end of February 2011, the number of listed products totaled 1,135 compared to 964 listed products at the same time last year.
Tisha Guerrero contributed to this article.
The opinions and forecasts expressed herein are solely those of Tom Lydon, and may not actually come to pass. Information on this site should not be used or construed as an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation for any product.