ETF Assets Add $18B For December

Total assets for December were $150.98 billion, up from $132.71 billion in November. In particular, increases were noted in the broad-based ETFs, which went up to $114.04 billion in December from $100.06 billion in November (See   ICI: ETFs Add $3.66 Billion in November).

Further, sector/industry ETFs gained assets to reach a record level of $18.28 billion and helped propel the total domestic equity index to a total asset amount of $132.33 billion from $116.52 billion the month before, according to data supplied by the Investment Company Institute (ICI).

Meanwhile, the Global/International Equity Index saw a net inflow of assets, ending December at $13.98 billion from $11.95 billion in November. The Bond ETF index was also up slightly to $4.66 billion in December, from November’s $4.25 billion.

Additionally, the value of ETF shares issued in December exceeded that of shares redeemed by $12.56 billion.  The total number of ETFs was up by one to 119.

Shares of exchange traded fund trade intraday on stock exchanges at market determined prices. Investors may buy or sell ETF shares through a broker just as they would the shares of any publicly traded company (See  Black Box: Exchange-Traded Funds ).