Fixed income flows posted a third strong month in a row with $5.6 billion in inflows, but for the first time this year the short maturity category with $2.8 billion inflows for the month was eclipsed by funds in the intermediate maturity range with $4.2 billion.
Another notable trend was the increased interest in ETPs offering exposure to Japanese equities.
At $10.2 billion, this was the largest monthly inflow on record for the category. Year-to-date flows in Japan equity ETPs have reached $23.1 billion, or 22.9% of all global equity ETP flows. To put this in perspective, the pace of flows so far in 2013 is already more than double the levels seen annually in both 2011 and 2012. We’d conjecture this increased interest has been bolstered by the accommodative monetary policy adopted by the Japanese Central Bank.
Source: BlackRock ETP Research and Bloomberg
Sell in May and go away? Not if you’re an ETP investor.
Dodd Kittsley, CFA, is the Head of Global ETP Market Trends Research for BlackRock.