The Markets March 29, 2008
ETF Assets Drop in February
Exchange-traded fund assets declined in February, but have nonetheless increased 29.1% over the past year.
Reported by Nevin E. Adams
The Investment Company Institute (ICI) notes that assets of all exchange-traded funds (ETFs) fell in February by $9.41 billion, or 1.7%, to $559.31 billion. However, over the past 12 months, ETF assets increased $125.91 billion, or 29.1%.
Assets in domestic equity ETFs increased $55.48 billion since February 2007, and global equity ETFs assets rose by nearly as much – $51.87 billion – during this period. Assets of bond index funds were $39.88 billion and hybrid index funds were $138 million.
During February, the value of all ETF shares issued fell short of shares redeemed by $6.93 billion. In February 2007, ETFs experienced a net issuance of $4.99 billion.
A detailed breakdown of the monthly ETF data is available at http://members.ici.org/stats/etfdata.xls