Van Eck, PIMCO Dominate ETF Growth

Last month emerging markets, fixed income and commodities were the favored destinations for ETF investors. ETF issuers, such as Van Eck in emerging markets and PIMCO in fixed income, dominated their space and saw significant growth. Major index ETFs and leveraged ETFs remained popular trading vehicles, but gold, Brazil and retail also saw considerable interest.

Asset Gathering

Barclays remained the king of ETF cash flows in October, as $3.759 billion flowed into its funds. Vanguard was right on its heels, with $3.353 billion in inflows, while State Street saw $1.762 billion in outflows, due to $2.336 billion flowing out of SPDR S&P 500 (SPY Quote).

Among the smaller ETF issuers, Van Eck was at the top of the heap, with $722 million in inflows, more than half of which came from two funds: Market Vectors Russia (RSX Quote) and Market Vectors Small Cap Brazil (BRF Quote).

In terms of growth rates, PIMCO and ETF Securities saw October inflows equal to 46% and 32% of Sept. 30 assets under management, respectively. Smaller issuer ALPS had 75% growth, thanks to the popularity of its ALPS Thomson Reuters/Jefferies CRB Commodity Equity (CRBQ Quote), which saw $45 million flow into the fund.

These fast-growing ETF issuers are in the area of fixed income, emerging markets and commodities. As explained in my October ETF Scorecard, these are three of the most popular destinations for ETF investors.

Since October 2008, Vanguard has seen the fastest total asset growth (inflows plus price appreciation), of the big three issuers, as it doubled from $40 billion in assets last year to $80 billion as of Oct. 31. Barclays grew 48% and State Street increased 11%.