Investors have already pumped nearly $5 billion into the two largest emerging market ETFs so far this year as volatility in the asset class drops to the lowest level in a decade.
Year to date, investors have added $3.4 billion to iShares MSCI Emerging Markets (NYSEArca: EEM) and $1.4 billion to Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets (NYSEArca: VWO), according to IndexUniverse flow data. The two funds are the top-selling ETFs so far this year.
The emerging market ETFs finished 2012 strong but have been trailing the S&P 500 in January.
However, a measure of 50-day volatility in EEM has fallen to the lowest level since at least January 2003, Bloomberg News reports.
“You’ve got increased global risk appetite on the back of better Chinese news flow, better-than-expected U.S. data and the fact that Europe appears to be stabilizing,” Alec Young, a global equity strategist at S&P Capital IQ, said in the Bloomberg story. “When there’s more nervousness around you see more volatility, but it’s been nice and steady recently.”
VWO, the Vanguard emerging markets ETF, has started its two-step transition to a new target index that was originally announced in October. [Vanguard Emerging Market ETF Kicks Off Index Transition]
iShares MSCI Emerging Markets
Full disclosure: Tom Lydon’s clients own EEM.