Robo-advisor Scalable Capital has reached €500 million in assets 22 months after launching in Germany and 16 months after launching in the UK. The firm uses proprietary risk management algorithms to manage portfolios built using ETFs for clients.
Weekly flows analysis from ETF Securities shows that oil ETFs saw outflows of $73 million on the back of profit taking during the week commencing 30 October. Oil has risen steadily in price since the summer and the outflows come as Brent crude closed at a two-year high of $64.27 on 6 November.
EMEA-listed ETFs recorded net inflows of $7.8 billion in October, according to research from BlackRock. Equity ETFs dominated again with $6.3bn of the net new assets while fixed income ETFs gained $1.1bn. Net new assets for ETFs in the region in the year-to-date now stand at $81bn, already greater than the previous full calendar year record set in 2015.
The London Stock Exchange (LSE) has reported that total on-exchange value traded for ETFs in October 2017 was £27 billion through 290k trades, an increase of 3% compared to October 2016. The average order book trade size for ETFs was £38k during the month.
The number of indices available to investors has risen exponentially in the past few years, from less than 1000 in 2012 to well over a million today, a period that has also witnessed a sharp increase in assets invested in products that track indices, including ETFs. A recent report from Bernstein argues that this rapid expansion does not represent a triumph of indices but rather the “last hurrah” or “death of benchmarking” altogether.
Wells Fargo has announced the launch of Intuitive Investor, a hybrid online offering that provides new and emerging investors with a robo-advisor service for investing in a managed portfolio of ETFs, with the additional option to speak to human investment advisors.
Toronto-based Equium Capital has unveiled an ETF share class for its global tactical allocation fund, which was launched in March 2017. The ETF shares will trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the name Equium Global Tactical Allocation Fund (ETAC).
PowerShares Source has listed the Source STOXX Europe Small 200 UCITS ETF (SDJSML IM) onto the Borsa Italiana. The ETF, which meets the requirements of Italy’s new PIR tax-exempt savings plan, gives exposure to small-cap equities from developed markets in Europe.
The Bank of England (BoE) has announced a widely expected increase in the base rate from 0.25% to 0.50%, the first rise in over a decade, after the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee voted 7-2 in favour of the hike. Market commentators from across the ETF industry share their interpretations of the rate rise.
SIX Swiss Exchange reported a 13.7% drop in Q3 ETF trading volumes compared to Q2, with the majority of the decrease accounted for by equity ETFs, after the benchmark Swiss Market Index SMI traded sideways for much of the quarter. The year-on-year decline was a relatively modest 3.6%.