Investing March 31, 2003

ETFs Continue Losing Assets in February

March 31, 2003 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Assets in exchange-traded funds (ETF) dipped to $92.8 billion in February - the third drop in a row - from $95.6 billion in January .
Reported by

ETFs saw total domestic equity index assets drop to $83.8 billion in February from $86.9 billion in January. Broad-based domestic ETFs saw a dropoff to $73.4 billion from $76.5 billion in January, while sector/industry domestic ETFs reversed the decreases seen elsewhere, increasing their asset base to $10.5 billion, according to data supplied by the Investment Company Institute (ICI).

Other increases were eked out in global/international ETFs, growing to $5.2 billion in February from January’s $5.1 billion and bond ETFs increasing to $3.8 billion from $3.7 billion.   Comparatively, January’s overall asset report was down from December’s $102.1 billion (See ETFs Start 2003 Headed South).

Further, the value of ETF shares redeemed in January exceeded that of shares issued by $1.9 billion. The total number of number of ETFs added a global/international equity index to their rolls, bringing the overall February total up one to 114.

Shares of an 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.

«