Record ETF inflows for November
Fund Launches and Updates
DWS cut fees on 21 ETFs ranging from 2 basis points to 61bp. Year to date, DWS has seen net inflows of $12.5bn into its ETFs, comfortably ahead of the near-$9bn gathered during the whole of 2019. FT
Impact fintech business, iClima Earth, will launch the world’s first ESG UCITS exchange traded fund that provides exposure to companies offering products and services that enable CO2e avoidance solutions, and quantify that impact.
The iClima Global Decarbonisation Enablers UCITS ETF (ticker: CLMA) will launch via the HANetf platform and will list on the London Stock Exchange in early December, TER of 0.65%. Han release
Global X ETFs, the New York-based provider of ETFs, announced the launch of its European business operation. Global X, known for its thematic growth, income, and international access strategies will focus on the UK, Switzerland, Germany and Denmark markets as it begins its expansion across Europe. Press Release
Lyxor International Asset Management has launched a new ETF, the Lyxor Nasdaq-100 Daily (2x) Leveraged UCITS ETF – Acc, on Xetra and Börse Frankfurt. Link
Vanguard is set to close its four active factor ETF range in response to insufficient investor demand. The four Ireland-based ETFs have a combined £224m ($298m) in assets under management and provide exposure to four investment factors: value (VDVA), momentum (VDMO), low volatility (VDMV) and liquidity (VDLQ). They are expected to officially close on 23 February 2021. FT
VanEck has expanded its thematics range with the launch of Europe’s first semiconductor ETF. The VanEck Vectors Semiconductor UCITS ETF (SMGB) is listed on London Stock Exchange with a total expense ratio of 0.35%. Link
WisdomTree has expanded its gold ETC range with the launch of a product that is entirely exposed to responsibly sourced gold bars. The WisdomTree Core Physical Gold ETP (WGLD) is listed on London Stock Exchange with a management expense ratio of 0.15%. Link
Flows
In Europe, Bloomberg reported an impressive month of €12.8billion of inflows for November, most of which went into equity-based products.
In the U.S., ETFs tracking equities lured a record $81 billion last month, bringing their total haul for the year to $196 billion. That catapulted them ahead of fixed-income funds, which attracted $17 billion and have a tally of $192 billion.
The $189 billion Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) has seen the most inflows this year at $27.2 billion, followed by the $177 billion Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO), which has absorbed $26.7 billion. Bloomberg
Noteworthy
Almost 6.4m ETF trades worth £126bn have been completed in the first 10 months of the year, up from 4m trades worth £103bn in the whole of 2019, according to LSE. About 8.6 per cent of all European ETF trading in the third quarter of 2020 was on the LSE, up from 5.9 per cent in the first quarter. FT
Sustainable investing and the opening up of China’s once closed markets are two of the hottest investment trends. But the world’s second-largest economy has the worst ESG ratings of any major nation.
China accounts for 40.9 per cent of the MSCI Emerging Markets equity index, its weighting is far lower than this in many of the indices typically followed by ESG ETFs. The MSCI Emerging Markets SRI Index has just 18.6 per cent China exposure, for example, while for the MSCI EM SRI Select Reduced Fossil Fuel Index it is 19.4 per cent. FT
The European ETF industry is on course to record the highest annual number of fund closures since the inception of the market in 2000, according to research from Refinitiv. Refinitiv recently published a list of what they deem as an “ETF Deathlist” which predicts potential ETF closures based on assets under 10m and at least 3 years of history. Link
Fund in Focus
There is a growing cryptocurrency ETP landscape with more strategies coming to market in recent months, according to the publication ETF Stream.
This week’s fund in focus is the world’s first crypto ETP, the 21Shares Crypto Basket Index ETP (HODL), which was launched on the SIX Swiss exchange in November 2018.
The 21Shares Crypto Basket Index ETP (ticker: HODL) seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of top 5 crypto currencies ranked by market capitalization. 21Shares
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