Fixed Income ETFs Top April Inflows

NEW YORK (TheStreet Ratings) -- Each month, the ETF Industry Association) analyzes the assets under management and the net cash flow data for a growing list of U.S. exchange-traded funds. A net cash inflow of $3.0 billion in April brought net cash inflows year-to-data up to $58.9 billion.

Overall assets under management in exchange-traded products, covering 1,458 exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded notes, eroded by $4.9 billion in April to end at $1.2 trillion. All of the asset and flow data included in this article was released on Thursday, May 3rd by the ETF Industry Association.

A torrent of $5 billion flowed into fixed income ETFs in April in the 16th consecutive month of net inflows. Fixed income ETFs have swelled by $21.3 billion so far this year. $622 million flowed into iShares iBoxx Inv Grade Corp Bond (LQD) and $505 million entered iShares iBoxx High Yield Corp Bond (HYG).

On the other hand, April 2012 witnessed exchange-traded product outflows of $1.7 billion from U.S. equity funds of which $206 million exited long leveraged and $248 million fled short leveraged U.S. equity products. Even after April's $1.2 billion outflow from all commodity funds, that sector has still attracted $3.4 billion in net inflows year-to-date. Total real estate inflows remain strong, adding another $750 million in April.

Some of the largest April 2012 inflows included $1.0 billion to iShares Russell 2000 (IWM), $650 million to SPDR Industrial (XLI), $618 million to Vanguard S&P 500 (VOO), and $597 million to Vanguard MSCI Emerging Markets (VWO).

Some of the largest April 2012 outflows included $2.6 billion from PowerShares QQQ (QQQ), $1.7 billion from SPDR S&P 500 (SPY), $1 billion from SPDR DJIA (DIA), $803 million from iShares MSCI-EAFE (EFA), and $683 million from iShares MSCI-Emerging Mkts (EEM).

Among the exchange-traded product issuers for April 2012, Vanguard attracted the most inflows at $4.4 billion. This was followed by Van Eck with an inflow of $951 million and Blackrock (BLK) adding $917 million.

-- Reported by Kevin Baker in Jupiter, Fla.



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Kevin Baker became the senior financial analyst for TheStreet Ratings upon the August 2006 acquisition of Weiss Ratings by TheStreet.com, covering equity and mutual fund ratings. He joined the Weiss Group in 1997 as a banking and brokerage analyst. In 1999, he created the Weiss Group's first ratings to gauge the level of risk in U.S. equities. Baker received a B.S. degree in management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an M.B.A. with a finance specialization from Nova Southeastern University.