The Australian ETF industry recorded another strong month of growth, with total industry FuM at the end of May hitting a new high as the industry nears the $30B mark. Total industry FUM at month end was $29.0B, with growth of 2.6% or $730M for the month. In a month where the Australian market tumbled, almost all the growth came from net new money, rather than asset appreciation.
The Australian exchange traded fund industry grew by 5%, or $1.1B, during the first half of 2016, despite the challenging market conditions, ending the financial year with total funds under management of $22.5B. June was especially turbulent with the Brexit vote and the Australian election all adding to ongoing volatility. Investors continued to support ETFs by investing almost $1.4B in new money into the industry during the last 6 months meaning that all the industry’s growth this half has come from structural growth, with asset price declines actually being a net negative for the industry as a whole.
The industry continues to mature during 2016 with 16 new products added and 10 closed so far this year. We expect the number of new products to grow significantly during the last half of the year in what will be another strong year for product launches.
The holiday is definitely over! The markets have experienced a horror start to 2016. While losses were sustained across global share markets, it was an opportunity for the exchange traded fund industry to display its resilience amongst the turmoil.
The industry recorded a contrary position to the overall market and saw positive inflows for the month with just over $100m of new money entering the market, although the overall value of the exchange traded fund contracted by -4.3%.
