There’s no shortage of ETFs on the ASX but those focused on international equities have been demanded above all others.
BetaShares’ monthly ETF review found that inflows for international equities was $867 million in January 2021. Next was Australian equities at a far smaller $315 million.
Following these were fixed income focused ETFs with $239 million, multi-asset ETFs with $117 million and commodities ETFs with $31 million.
“Equities were again the focus of the month, as was the case throughout much of 2020, with international equities once again being the most actively invested sector of the market,” it said.
The top sub-category outflows also played into the commodities theme with oil seeing $11.9 million in outflows and silver with $1.6 million.
Betashares credited investor profit-taking with the oil sell-out, which occurred despite the sharp rise in oil prices in recent weeks.
Which ETFs have benefited?
It has been a similar story when considering the top performing ETFs from a share price basis.
The top 5 ETFs in the last month are all international focused ETFs with three of them focused on Asia and the other two focused on America.
| Code | Company | Price | Month % Change | Market Cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ASIA | Beta AsiaTech Tigers | 14.01 | 15 | $702M |
| FANG | ETFs FANG | 18.31 | 14 | $199M |
| IZZ | IShares China ETF | 69.65 | 10 | $146M |
| CETF | VanEck China A50 | 79.80 | 9 | $28.3M |
| GGUS | BetaShares Geared US Equities | 27.90 | 9 | $64.2M |
In a further sign of investor confidence, the two worst performing ETFs are BetaShares Bear Funds for Australia and the US (ASX:BBOZ, and ASX:BBUS), which are ETFs designed to go up when the markets go down.
In third last place is Van Eck’s Gold Miners ETF (ASX:GDX) which is now over 30 per cent down from its peak.
It surpassed $60 in August 2020 when gold surpassed US$2000 for the first time but both the ETF and gold prices been down ever since.