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Investing April 10, 2012
ETF Assets Increase $14B in March
April 10, 2012 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Exchange-traded fund (ETF) assets totaled $1.2 trillion as of March 31, 2012.
Reported by Rebecca Moore
In March ETF assets increased by more than $14 billion, or 1.2%, according to State Street Global Advisors’ (SSgA’s) ETF Snapshot report for March 2012.
ETF flows topped $11 billion in March. The Size-Large Cap led all categories with $5.9 billion in inflows, a reversal from the $4.8 billion in outflows it had in February. The Fixed Income category continued to see positive inflows, attracting $3.9 billion in March and $15.6 billion year-to-date.
The top three managers in the U.S. ETF marketplace in March were BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard. Collectively, they account for approximately 83% of the U.S.-listed ETF market.
The top three ETFs in terms of dollar volume traded for the month were the SPDR S&P 500 [SPY], the iShares Russell 2000 [IWM] and the PowerShares QQQ [QQQ]. The top three ETFs in terms of assets for the month were the SPDR S&P 500, SPDR Gold Shares [GLD] and Vanguard Emerging Markets [VWO].
By asset class, developed and emerging markets posted negative returns of 0.5% and 3.3%, respectively. Domestic large cap, mid cap and small cap markets were all positive, gaining 3.3%, 1.9% and 2.9%, respectively. The U.S. Aggregate, Treasury and Corporate Bond were all slightly negative. Commodities fell 2.4%.