February continued to give the exchange traded fund (ETF) industry some love, as month-over-month increases and inflows were up. [February ETF Performance Report.] Emerging markets was the main sector that missed cupid’s arrow, as some of these funds were the biggest losers.
Morningstar reported U.S. ETF inflows reached $6.8 billion in February. Total ETF industry assets were nearly $1 trillion at the end of February, marking a month-over-month increase for the sixth consecutive month, according to the report. [ETF Assets Riding On Momentum.]
Additional highlights from Morningstar’s report on ETF flows:
• U.S. stock ETFs, with inflows of $5.7 billion, drove overall ETF inflows, even though inflows to the asset classes were down roughly 55% from the previous month.
• International-stock ETFs saw outflows of $3.3 billion, the most of any ETF asset class. Some of the ETFs with the greatest outflows during the month were iShares MSCI Emerging Markets (NYSEArca: EEM) and the Vanguard MSCI Emerging Markets (NYSEArca: VWO).
Currently, there are 919 ETFs trading, and 28 providers. Vanguard had the largest inflows with $2.5 billion, according to BlackRock’s report. Assets under management for the U.S. ETF industry is at $929.1 billion.
Tisha Guerrero contributed to this article.
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