Alex Vynokur

Australia’s ETF industry has recorded its highest ever trading value in October, with $3.9bn in value traded according to the BetaShares Australian ETF Review – October 2018.

Dramatic sharemarket falls caused the Australian ETF industry to drop 3.2% in October (equating to $1.3B), lowering total FUM to $40.8bn. Impressively, however, net flows into the industry were positive, with the industry taking in ~$760m of new money.

For the first time in 2018, Australian Equities were the largest category for inflows, attracting over $369m, although this was largely swayed by institutional flows into several broad market local equities products, including BetaShares’ A200 ETF. This was followed by International Equities, receiving over $164m.

Commenting on the month’s activity, BetaShares CEO, Alex Vynokur, said: “We are starting to see a trend emerging, much like the more mature and developed U.S. ETF industry, of Australian investors utilising the liquidity benefits of ETFs during times of market volatility, with ETFs being effective and easy ways to express investment views in such times.”

The top performing products were the three members of the BetaShares Bear product suite – with BetaShares US Equities Strong Bear Hedge Fund (BBUS) and BetaShares Australian Equities Strong Bear Hedge Fund (BBOZ) the best performing products during the month, returning 17.5% and 15.6% respectively.

Net outflows at a category level came from these Short funds, with investors seeking to take profits as the products rallied while markets fell.

Two new products were launched during the month, being the BetaShares Global Income Leaders ETF (ASX: INCM) and a Global Infrastructure ETF, bringing the total number of Exchange Traded Products trading on the ASX to 243.

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