While the markets continued to experience wild swings, investors continued to throw more money into exchange traded fund, revealing their continued preference for low-cost index-based strategies, regardless of the trading environment.
According to State Street Global Advisors, U.S.-listed ETFs attracted $44 billion of inflows over November, bringing 2018’s total fund inflows to $260 billion ahead of the last month of the year.
Equity ETFs experienced the most action of any category in November, attracting the lion’s share with $30 billion, compared to the category’s five-year monthly average of $19 billion.
Among the various stock plays, Health Care ETFs attracted the most assets with $1.8B in new inflows, the most of any sector category in November, and saw inflows for the third consecutive month. Defense was a major theme as the defensive sector Consumer Staples took in almost $1 billion for the month as well.
Taking a step back, a rotation toward value strategies was also a prominent theme in November, with Value ETFs seeing $5 billion of new inflows compared to just $1.4 billion for growth-oriented exposures.