S&P Dow Jones Indices, one of the largest providers of indices for use by issuers of exchange traded funds, said over $7 trillion in global assets were linked to the S&P 500 at the end of last year.
That represents an increase of almost 22% from the end of 2012, said the index provider. Of that total, nearly $1.9 trillion was directly indexed to the S&P 500, the company’s marquee index. That is a 20% increase from the end of 2012, according to S&P.
It helps that the two largest U.S. ETFs are S&P 500 tracking funds. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEArca: SPY) is the world’s largest ETF with $170.7 billion in assets under management as of Aug. 20. TheiShares Core S&P 500 ETF (NYSEArca: IVV), the second-largest U.S. ETF, had $60.5 billion in AUM as of Aug. 20. [S&P 500 ETFs Add Cash]
S&P Dow Jones Indices has also benefited from ongoing inflows to dividend ETFs and other ETFs that track alternative indices. As of year-end 2013, approximately $52 billion is directly indexed to S&P DJI factor based indices (I.e. alternative/smart beta indices) such as the S&P 500 Low Volatility Index, S&P GIVI, S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats, and others, the index provider said in the statement.
Nearly $8 billion in new assets has flowed into dividend ETFs this year. Well-known dividend ETFs tracking S&P Dividend Aristocrats indices, include the $12.8 billion SPDR S&P Dividend ETF (NYSEArca: SDY), one of the largest U.S. dividend ETFs, and the ProShares S&P 500 Aristocrats ETF (NYSEArca: NOBL). NOBL debuted in early October 2013, topped $100 million in assets under management in February and has since surged to over $230 million. [Dividend ETFs Still Popular]