Oil Supply Risk Drives Energy ETF Flows in June, Europe Reacts to ECB – European ETP Highlights
Oil Supply Risk Drives Energy ETF Flows in June, Europe Reacts to ECB As of the end of June 2014, global ETP assets approached $2.49 trillion (€1.82 trillion) rising by $75.9bn for the month of June. European ETPs received +€4bn of cash inflows. Equity exposed ETFs benefitted most by gathering +€3.5bn, while fixed income products had yet another positive month collecting +€0.9bn of cash inflows. Commodity based ETFs listed in Europe saw modest outflows of -€0.3bn.
Energy ETFs in demand on Iraq crisis
The Iraqi insurgency led by the Islamic State of Iraq (ISIS) has dominated the media throughout May and June. Major cities in Iraq were captured as ISIS solidified its grip in Northern Iraq. Baiji, Iraq’s largest oil refinery, was also captured which led to concerns on global disruption of oil supply from OPEC’s second largest producer of crude oil. In June we have noticed significant investor attention and inflows to Energy ETFs on expectations of a spike in oil prices with over €63mn entering an Oil & Gas ETF listed in Europe.
ECB announcement
After the ECB announcement in early June, which provided a range of stimulus measures to counter the threat of deflation and boost the Eurozone economy, ETFs exposed to the broad European equity markets reacted positively and received healthy inflows of €1.4bn. Whilst the upbeat tone from the announcement was dampened towards the end of the month due to less positive data from Germany, these inflows remain sticky and we are yet to witness cash being withdrawn from these products.
Dividend ETFs steadily accumulating healthy inflows
As the economy begins to turn, high yielding dividend paying stocks become more attractive as payments to shareholders previously deemed unsustainable in the long term start to look quite the opposite. In addition to this, investor expectations of the ECB announcement on stimulus measures may have created greater attraction to high yielding equities in the near term. Coinciding with this view it was noted that dividend focused ETFs have seen significant inflows from April’14 to date at over +€1.2bn.
