Aussie ETF industry down in September

Oksana Patron

17 October 2022

The positive inflows were not enough to combat sharemarket declines and the Australian exchange traded funds (ETF) industry declined in value in September, according to BetaShares Australian ETF Review.

While the ASX (Australian Securities Exchange) ETF trading value dropped 11% month on month to a total of $9.1 billion, overall industry assets under management (AUM) fell 4.3% (-$5.6 billion) putting the total industry market capitalisation at $124.4 billion at the end of September.

At the same time, continued asset value depreciation saw industry growth over the last 12 months flat, recording a small decline year on year of 0.7% or -$0.9 billion.

“Notwithstanding significant global market volatility, industry flows remained positive, although as per last month, were muted – with $0.8 billion of net flows for the month,” the review said.

Also, net outflows were recorded in short exposures as investors took advantage of the falling markets to take profits in these positions.

Additionally, category flows were markedly different this month compared to the trend in the year to date, with Fixed Income & Cash ETFs receiving the lion’s share of industry flows – with over 50% of the industry’s monthly net inflows between them.

“With investors remaining cautious on equities and yields continuing to rise it has been High Interest Cash and floating-rate Australian bond exposures that have seen the highest level of investor interest in September,” the report stressed.

Given the significant falls in global sharemarkets in September, the best performing funds were all Leveraged Short Equities products, including BBUS and BBOZ (returning 23% and 15% respectively) and BetaShares’ Strong US Dollar Fund (ASX: YANK) which was helped by continued strength in the US dollar.

Also, only one new product was launched this month, the Global Royalties ETF (ASX: ROYL) – the first ETF  providing exposure to a portfolio of royalty companies across multiple sectors.