While the exchange traded fund space continues to grow, things are beginning to slow down, with inflows trickling in to a 16-month low in April after the heavy investment interest at the start of the year.
“April was a weaker month for ETPs than March, but it continues to be a record year for the popularity of ETPs overall,” head of ETP research at BlackRock, Ursula Marchioni, said in a CNBC article. “More money has been put into ETPs so far this year than at the same stage at any other year in the industry’s history.”
Global exchange traded products brought in $6.5 billion in April, levels not seen since January 2014. In contrast, ETPs attracted $35.8 billion and $49.2 billion in flows over March and February, respectively.
After the run up in the equities market, stock funds experienced $15.5 billion in outflows over April.
Emerging market equity ETP inflows, though, picked up, attracting $2.5 billion of inflows in April – the “first notable inflows since August 2014,” according to BlackRock.
Meanwhile, fixed-income fund flows improved last month, following the Federal Reserves’ minutes, with investors growing wary of the “stretched valuations” in stocks.