Assets invested in ETFs and ETPs listed in Japan and Canada reached record $235 billion and $107 billion totals respectively at the end of August, according to ETFGI, a leading independent research and consultancy firm.
The increase in Canada assets invested in ETFs and ETPs increased 26.6 percent in the first 8 months of the year while Japan assets increased 35.4% over the same period.
The Canadian ETF industry had 516 ETFs, with 636 listings, assets of US$107 billion, from 24 providers on two exchanges while the Japanese ETF and ETP industry had 190 ETFs/ETPs, with 235 listings, assets of US$235 billion, from 21 providers on two exchanges.
According to Deborah Fuhr, managing partner at ETFGI, August is typically a challenging month for equity markets with the average loss over the past 20 years for the S&P 500 at 1.3%.
“This year the S&P 500 was up 0.31% in August and 11.93% YTD, MSCI ACW was up 0.44% and 15.48% YTD while MSCI EM was up 2.27% for August and 28.59% YTD (all prices in USD),” Fuhr said. “Storms and political risks remain a focus for investors – the ability of the Trump administration to move forward on policy goals and hearings on Capitol Hill, Brexit negotiations, and North Korea is still an area of concern.”
ETFs and ETPs listed in Canada gathered US$2.32 billion in net inflows in August marking 11 consecutive months of net inflows and a record level of US$13.88 billion in YTD net inflows. This is more than the US$10.00 billion in net inflows compared to this time last year, and US$1.18 billion more than the US$12.70 billion net inflows gathered in all of 2016.
Canadian Equity ETFs and ETPs gathered a record level of US$1.79 billion in net inflows in August, bringing YTD net inflows to a record level of US$6.85 billion , which is much greater than the net inflows of US$4.87 billion over the same period last year and more than the US$6.23 billion gathered in all 2016.