BetaShares’ latest ETF review shows that the Australian ETF industry broke its all-time net flows record for September, receiving more than $2bn of net flows in a single month for the first time.
As a result, and notwithstanding sharply falling global sharemarkets, the industry grew to end the month at $71.4bn in funds under management, another fresh record high.
The company said in its report: “The overall growth of the industry was held back by asset value declines, leading to only modest FuM growth of $600million (0.9% month-on-month increase), with industry growth over the last 12 months of 27%, representing absolute growth of $15.2billion over this period.
“With both the local and Australian sharemarkets, and technology stocks in particular, tumbling over the month of September, ETF industry growth was made up entirely of net new money which totalled $2.1billion.”
There were 246 Exchange Traded Products trading on the ASX and Chi-X with four new products launching in September, all from Van Eck, with one bond product maturing in the month.
TOP 5 CATEGORY INFLOWS (BY $) – SEPTEMBER 2020
| Category | Inflow Value |
| Australian Equities | $1,166,757,276 |
| International Equities | $740,522,751 |
| Fixed Income | $289,275,448 |
| Commodities | $81,093,905 |
| Multi-Asset | $65,328,512 |
Top sub-category inflows (by $) – September 2020
| Sub-Category | Inflow Value |
| Australian Equities – Broad | $1,046,954,911 |
| Australian Bonds | $226,717,514 |
| International Equities – Developed World | $214,334,084 |
| International Equities – Sector | $203,424,579 |
| International Equities – US | $139,201,380 |
BetaShares noted that flows were robust across a number of asset class categories, with international equities exposures dominating ($722m net flows).
Investors however continued to diversify their portfolios away from equities with ~$370m into fixed income products and ~$200m into both cash and commodities ETFs (largely gold products). Outflows were limited to US Dollar products even as the USD fell in value vs. the AUD, with investors apparently concerned that continued AUD strength is possible.
