In its Australian ETF review for August 2014, BetaShares found the market increased by $200 million, which it attributed to new money flows during a month in which the Australian share market did not grow at all.
“In what has been a recurring theme in the industry, investors continued to be attracted to high yielding Australian equities, with that product sector receiving the highest level of inflows for the month,” the report said.
“In a month in which Australian stocks performed in a lacklustre fashion, the exchange-traded products which delivered the best returns to investors were those that focused on natural gas and emerging markets equities,” it said.
BetaShares managing director Alex Vynokur said ETFs provide a convenient way to build sensibly diversified portfolios that include a wide range of asset clashes.
“Their attraction is independent of the fluctuations in the Australian share market. As it happens, though, many ETF investors continue to seek yield – as they have done for much of the last year,” Mr Vynokur said.
Mr Vynokur also said the growth in funds under management within the sector was expected to continue.
“The recent development of the ETF market suggests that larger numbers of investors are becoming involved, investing money into established products,” Mr Vynokur said.
“We expect continued inflows into existing products, however, we additionally expect industry growth to be assisted by new and innovative investment solutions that are anticipated to become available on the ASX through the last four months of 2014.”
