ETF Inflows Slow, but Barclays Benefits

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The ETF industry added more assets in August, but the pace of net inflows slowed from almost $13.5 billion in July to a little more than $5.5 billion.

Barclays grabbed a huge slice of the pie, with $2.2 billion in inflows, followed by $2.1 billion at Vanguard; Invesco/PowerShares and SSgA added about $1 billion each; and Direxion claimed $0.5 billion. Those numbers were mainly offset by outflows of $1.6 billion at ProShares.

The funds with the largest inflows were iShares S&P 500(IVV), $1 billion; iShares Russell 2000(IWM), $700 million; iShares Barclays TIPS(TIP), $600 million; Vanguard REIT(VNQ), $500 million; and SPDR S&P Energy(XLE), $400 million.

The funds with the largest outflows were iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25(FXI), $1.6 billion; iShares MSCI Emerging Markets(EEM), $1 billion; ProShares Ultra Dow Jones Financials(UYG), $500 million; ProShares Ultra S&P 500(SSO), $500 million; and SPDR S&P 500(SPY), $500 million.

As we saw in previous months, some of the shift in assets was between funds using very similar, if not the same, strategies. This month, funds flowed out of SPY and into IVV. While EEM lost assets, Vanguard MSCI Emerging Markets (VWO) added $200 million.

Some of the fastest-growing ETFs (inflows relative to assets) were bearish funds. Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X(TZA), which saw $381 million flow into the fund. That was more than the final assets at the end of the month, however, as rising markets ate into returns.

ETF Securities Silver(SIVR) added $93 million in assets on top of the $4 million in July. ProShares UltraShort Silver(ZSL) and ProShares UltraPro Short S&P 500(SPXU) saw rapid growth in assets as well.

Finally, PowerShares DB U.S. Dollar Bullish(UUP) saw inflows of $173 million, bringing assets to $354 million -- still less than 50% of year ago August assets.