The USA in particular appears to be convincing at the moment - both in the equity and bond sectors. The influx into tech and AI stocks is also continuing, although some ETFs are also seeing outflows. Still in demand: Gold ETCs. “
30 April 2024. FRANKFURT (Börse Frankfurt). ETF purchases already continued in the falling markets, and even more so in the rising markets since last week. Frank Mohr from Société Générale continues to see more buying than selling. “However, the buying overhang is shrinking,” he observes. The strong concentration on the USA is currently striking: “US equities account for 40 percent of our turnover and are therefore well ahead of the MSCI World equities, which are otherwise equally strong in terms of turnover.” Holger Heinrich from Baader Bank also sees differences: “World products are not at the top of the shopping list.” He also reports more purchases than sales, with somewhat lower turnover than in the previous week.
“Conspicuous desire for quality”
Most of the focus is currently on the S&P 500, MSCI USA and Nasdaq trackers, as the traders report. “The USA is setting the pace,” explains Mohr. S&P 500 ETFs from SPDR and iShares, for example, are in demand. Quality and dividend stocks are sometimes sold (IE00B6YX5D40), sometimes sold. At Lang & Schwarz, the iShares Core S&P 500 (IE00B5BMR087) is very popular, as Fabian Wörndl notes. According to Heinrich from Baader Bank, value index funds such as JPM Active US Value (IE000DTA2ZH9), one of the increasingly popular active ETFs, and quality dividend products are also popular. “The desire for quality was noticeable across all three regions.”
According to the traders, MSCI World ETFs were also dominated by inflows. According to Heinrich, in addition to MSCI World SRI trackers (IE000K1P4V37), quality ETFs such as Amundi Global Equity Quality Income (LU0832436512) are also in demand.
There are more and more active ETFs as an alternative to the S&P 500 and MSCI World ETFs, which are heavily weighted towards US technology. Moat or moat ETFs take a different approach. They are based on the investment concept of star investor Warren Buffett: investing in companies that are successful and generate high margins and have also been able to build a “moat” around themselves that makes it difficult for competitors in the long term. In addition, the companies in the portfolio must be favorably valued. VanEck has launched four Moat ETFs, on US large and small and mid caps as well as on global equities, including one with an ESG filter for US equities. The largest of these, the VanEck Morningstar US Sustainable Wide Moat (IE00BQQP9H09), has now raised almost 500 million US dollars.
China back on the radar
As far as Europe is concerned, Baader Bank is increasingly investing in individual country indices again, such as the Austrian ATX (LU0659579063) or the DAX (DE000ETF9033). “In addition, quality, dividend and growth were also an issue - and ESG again,” adds the trader. Mohr reports more or less balanced trading.
Those looking for opportunities outside the industrialized countries had their eyes on India in particular for many weeks. The iShares MSCI India (IE00BZCQB185), which is now worth almost 4 billion euros, was extremely well received. Now the focus is also shifting towards China, as Wörndl notes: the iShares MSCI China (IE00BJ5JPG56), which has long attracted little attention, is finding fans again.
AI ETFs: No longer just buys
Tech stocks are still the number one topic in trading sector ETFs. “They account for over 40 percent of our turnover,” says Mohr. “Everything else is far behind.” Still in focus: Xtrackers Artificial Intelligence & Big Data (IE00BGV5VN51) and iShares S&P 500 Information Technology (IE00B3WJKG14), both with clear inflows. “However, the picture is no longer quite so clear, with WisdomTree Artificial Intelligence (IE00BDVPNG13) recording outflows,” explains Mohr.
Popular: money market ETFs and gold ETCs
In the fixed income segment, inflows into money market ETFs are continuing, particularly into Lyxor Euro Overnight Return (FR0010510800) and Xtrackers II EUR Overnight Rate Swap (LU0290358497), as Mohr and Wörndl report. According to Mohr, European government bonds with maturities of 10 to 15 years are being sold and long-dated US government bonds are being bought. “Here, too, the trend seems to be towards the USA.”
In addition, the strong demand for gold ETCs continues, as Wörndl reports, especially for Xetra-Gold (DE000A0S9GB0). Meanwhile, trading in crypto ETNs is much quieter, he reports.
By Anna-Maria Borse 30 April 2024 © Deutsche Börse AG
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