Various type of financial and investment products in Bond market. i.e. REITs, ETFs, bonds, stocks. Sustainable portfolio management, long term wealth management with risk diversification concept. Library picture: Shutterstock

Various type of financial and investment products in Bond market. i.e. REITs, ETFs, bonds, stocks. Sustainable portfolio management, long term wealth management with risk diversification concept. Library picture: Shutterstock

Assets invested in exchange-traded funds and products grew by 17% during the first half of the year, according to the research and consulting outfit ETFGI.

Assets in ETFs and ETPs worldwide were worth $9.35trn as of 30 June 2021, ETFGI, a research and consulting outfit based in London, on 14 July. That is an increase of nearly a fifth--from $7.99trn--since 31 December 2020.

Much of the boost comes from rising financial markets. Deborah Fuhr, ETFGI’s founder and managing partner, stated in a press release: “The S&P 500 gained 2.33% in June and are up 15.25% in the first half of 2021. Developed markets ex-US lost 0.82% in June but are up 9.96% in the first half. Emerging markets are up 0.47% in June and are up 9.03% in the first half.”

Record net inflows

During the six months of 2021, global ETFs and ETPs received net inflows of $660.73bn, “beating the prior record of $293.69bn gathered year-to-date in 2020,” ETFGI stated. The $660.72bn figure is “just $102bn less than the $762.77bn gathered in all of 2020.”

It was the 25th month of consecutive net inflows, the firm reported.

Exchange-traded funds are mutual fund-like products that automatically track an index or type of financial asset, and can be bought or sold in real time on the stock market. Many investors plunk their cash in the funds because they typically have lower management fees.

Worldwide, there were 8,977 ETFs and ETPs, with 18,299 listings, from 556 providers listed on 77 exchanges in 62 countries at mid-year, according to the ETFGI report.

Luxembourg was the second largest European domicile, after Ireland, for ETFs in 2020, ETFGI earlier this year. Luxembourg ETFs had $260bn in assets under management at the end of December.