The Australian ETF industry’s collective assets under management declined by 1.6 per cent or $2.2 billion last month, new data from BetaShares has revealed.
While net flows from investors were roughly consistent with the past two months at $1.3 billion, this failed to offset the declines suffered in the market.
Net flows into Australian ETFs have remained positive in every month so far this year, however the industry has also recorded a fall in assets in each month except for February.
On an annual basis, the total market cap of the industry has lifted 17.6 per cent or $19.6 billion.
ASX ETF trading value climbed to its third highest level ever during the month, up 48 per cent compared to April at $11 billion.
BetaShares highlighted the much anticipated launch of Australia’s first crypto ETFs, which may not have received as positive a response from investors as expected.
“While the inception of these ETFs is no doubt a significant milestone for the development of the ETF industry it seems as though, for now at least, it was the media and issuers that were most excited about ‘winning the race’ to launch these products, with actual ETF investors reacting in a very subdued way,” said BetaShares COO Ilan Israelstam.
“At the end of the month the 4 products that launched combined had a total of only $13.8 million between them, with average net flows per product of ~$3 million for the month.”
Energy-related ETFs ranked as the month’s top performers with the BetaShares Global Energy Companies ETF - Currency Hedged (FUEL) gaining 12.9 per cent and the BetaShares Crude Oil Index ETF - Currency Hedged (Synthetic) (OOO) rising 10.8 per cent.
International equities have ranked as the top ETF category by inflows in recent months, however Australian equities took the top spot in May with inflows of $917 million, ahead of fixed income ($359 million), international equities ($110 million), commodities ($107 million) and multi-asset ($74 million).
Meanwhile, outflows were recorded for ETFs in the cash ($244 million) and short ($49 million) categories.
The iShares Core S&P/ASX 200 ETF (IOZ) received $437 million of inflows during the month, beating out the $307 million for the Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETF (VAS) and $112 million for the iShares Treasury ETF (IGB).
Outflows of $373 million were recorded for the Magellan Global Fund (Open Class) (Managed Fund) (MGOC), followed by $183 million for the BetaShares Australian High Interest Cash ETF (AAA) and $118 million for the MFG Core Infrastructure Fund (Managed Fund) (MSCI).
Vanguard has recorded $3.6 billion of inflows so far this year with a 46 per cent share of industry inflows overall, while outflows for Magellan in 2022 have totalled nearly $2 billion.
Jon Bragg
Jon Bragg is a journalist for Momentum Media's Investor Daily, nestegg and ifa. He enjoys writing about a wide variety of financial topics and issues and exploring the many implications they have on all aspects of life.
