April Flows: BOND Makes It Into Top 10

Olivier Ludwig

Bill Gross' Pimco Total Return ETF (BOND - News) was the 10 th -most-popular ETF last month and the most conspicuous example of investors moving assets into fixed-income funds amid renewed worries about the global recovery. While net flows in April, led by bond funds, were positive to the tune of $3.37 billion, weaker stock prices helped pull total U.S-listed ETF assets down 1 percent to $1.198 trillion.

Despite the month-on-month decline, flows, as noted, were positive in April, and total assets stood almost 13 percent higher than at the end of 2011, and 5.3 percent higher than a year earlier—clear evidence that the popularity of ETFs continues to expand as more investors tune into their low costs, tax efficiency, tradability and transparency.

BOND, the ETF version of the $250 billion mutual fund, the Pimco Total Return Fund, has been on the market for just two months, and has a total of more than $664 million, according to data compiled by IndexUniverse. The new fund gathered $380.1 million in April, adding to hopes among some ETF industry sources that the fund will help expand the popularity of actively managed ETFs.

The Pimco fund was joined on IndexUniverse's "Top Gainers" list by two fixed-income mainstays of the ETF market—the iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond Fund (LQD - News) and the iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond Fund (HYG - News). Investors poured $622.5 million into LQD and $505.1 million in HYG.

With nervousness about the eurozone's debt crisis again mounting—this time the focus is on Italy and especially Spain—investors were in something of a risk-off mode, shedding stocks in favor of more stable bonds last month. The S'P 500 Index dipped 0.4 percent last month and the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 0.7 percent. The Dow Jones industrial average did, however, finish April in the black, but just barely.

The least popular funds last month were, fittingly, focused on these three stock indexes.

At the top of our "Biggest Losers" table was the Nasdaq 100 ETF, the PowerShares QQQ Trust (QQQ - News), which bled $2.58 billion. The "Q's" were followed by the SPDR S'P 500 ETF (SPY - News) and the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average Trust (DIA - News), which lost $1.69 billion and $984.7 million, respectively.

While the single most popular fund last month was the small-stocks-focused iShares Russell 2000 Index Fund (IWM - News), which gathered about $1 billion, the redemptions from QQQ, SPY and DIA were a big reason for the $685.4 million in net outflows from U.S. equities.

Still, low-cost provider Vanguard Group, to some extent, was able to buck the overall anti-equities trend, thereby continuing its seemingly inexorable climb up the U.S. ETF industry's league tables.

Top Gainers ($, Millions)

Ticker

Name

Issuer

April 2012 Flows

April 2012 AUM ($, M)

April 2012 Turnover

IWM

iShares Russell 2000

BlackRock

1,008.36

15,611.35

89,384.38

XLI

Industrial Select SPDR

SSgA

649.75

3,399.80

13,299.83

LQD

iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond

BlackRock

622.46

20,550.44

4,514.78

VOO

Vanguard S'P 500

Vanguard

618.28

4,018.79

1,309.69

VWO

Vanguard MSCI Emerging Markets

Vanguard

597.21

53,869.05

19,372.87

GDX

Market Vectors Gold Miners

Van Eck

523.26

8,230.85

13,242.61

HYG

iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond

BlackRock

505.08

15,078.16

5,968.69

VNQ

Vanguard REIT

Vanguard

488.99

12,290.70

3,015.61

IVV

iShares S'P 500

BlackRock

386.74

30,190.87

9,240.33

BOND

PIMCO Total Return

PIMCO

380.14

664.58

535.92


Biggest Losers ($, Millions)

Ticker

Name

Issuer

April 2012 Flows

April 2012 AUM ($, M)

April 2012 Turnover

QQQ

PowerShares QQQ

Invesco PowerShares

-2,582.09

32,667.12

73,450.14

SPY

SPDR S'P 500

SSgA

-1,685.73

103,118.67

439,786.71

DIA

SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average Trust

SSgA

-984.71

11,604.10

17,621.66

EFA

iShares MSCI EAFE

BlackRock

-802.88

36,486.56

21,544.32

EEM

iShares MSCI Emerging Markets

BlackRock

-683.34

38,515.20

45,467.08

IJH

iShares S'P 400 MidCap

BlackRock

-429.72

10,540.83

2,245.84

GLD

SPDR Gold

SSgA

-412.91

67,837.78

33,182.80

TLT

iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond

BlackRock

-356.77

2,924.62

18,424.41

XLF

Financial Select SPDR

SSgA

-324.23

6,891.79

24,782.09

IWF

iShares Russell 1000 Growth

BlackRock

-302.12

16,344.70

3,145.16


Asset Class Table

Net Flows ($, mn)

AUM ($, mn)

% of AUM

U.S.

Equity

-685.64

542,269.86

-0.13%

International Equity

502.52

287,669.61

0.17%

U.S. Fixed Income

3,964.53

198,800.03

1.99%

International Fixed Income

1,209.57

15,976.09

7.57%

Commodities

-989.46

112,265.56

-0.88%

Currency

8.49

3,315.20

0.26%

Leveraged

-222.28

13,083.92

-1.70%

Inverse

-336.04

19,812.50

-1.70%

Asset Allocation

-3.65

1,079.62

-0.34%

Alternatives

-78.34

4,127.57

-1.90%

Total

3,369.71

1,198,399.96

0.28%

Vanguard Exception

Net outflows from U.S. equity funds notwithstanding, three of Valley Forge, Pa.-based Vanguard's funds were on IndexUniverse's Top Gainers list. Those were:

  • Vanguard S'P 500 ETF (VOO - News), $618.3 million

  • Vanguard MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (VWO - News), $597.2 million

  • Vanguard REIT ETF (VNQ - News), $489.0 million

In sum, Vanguard attracted a total of $4.37 billion in assets, compared with $1.25 billion for BlackRock's iShares. Vanguard remains the No. 3 ETF firm by assets, with $207.91 billion under management.

iShares remains No. 1 ETF company in the world, with $491.83 billion in assets, and State Street Global Advisors is second, with $296.34 billion.

SSgA and Invesco PowerShares—the latter the No. 4 ETF provider, had net outflows of $1.23 billion and $2.66 billion, respectively; largely because of outflows from SPY and the Nasdaq 100 ETF, QQQ.

April 2012 League Tables

Issuer

Net Flows

AUM ($M)

% of AUM

Turnover

BlackRock

1,253.83

491,827.84

0.25%

315,546.84

SSgA

-1,228.91

296,341.87

-0.41%

627,909.05

Vanguard

4,366.88

207,913.35

2.10%

42,897.51

Invesco PowerShares

-2,662.08

68,727.95

-3.87%

80,904.95

Van Eck

958.15

25,285.95

3.79%

25,464.36

ProShares

-453.53

22,489.82

-2.02%

66,613.16

WisdomTree

257.97

15,780.42

1.63%

3,470.81

Guggenheim

-52.71

9,469.83

-0.56%

2,188.21

First Trust

188.86

7,980.28

2.37%

1,867.64

Barclays Capital

-506.48

7,524.83

-6.73%

19,495.19

Charles Schwab

169.08

6,762.48

2.50%

1,070.56

Direxion

-104.52

6,527.46

-1.60%

58,788.92

PIMCO

631.86

4,818.73

13.11%

1,521.06

JPMorgan Chase

219.25

4,389.25

5.00%

1,074.70

ETF Securities

-12.05

4,035.77

-0.30%

758.51

ALPS

246.46

3,305.66

7.46%

604.11

US Commodity Funds

-110.01

2,973.33

-3.70%

7,885.41

Rydex

25.36

2,262.00

1.12%

4,080.14

Merrill Lynch

-23.03

1,332.10

-1.73%

160.82

Global X

16.99

1,311.21

1.30%

350.01

UBS

54.84

1,062.16

5.16%

165.85

VelocityShares

75.95

1,000.35

7.59%

4,572.50

FlexShares

68.81

786.60

8.75%

109.70

Emerging Global Shares

5.73

708.92

0.81%

123.65

GreenHaven

-23.62

603.57

-3.91%

78.88

IndexIQ

-4.54

500.20

-0.91%

102.13

AdvisorShares

22.57

496.81

4.54%

216.05

RevenueShares

-3.29

486.93

-0.67%

46.79

Credit Suisse

-2.37

392.20

-0.60%

56.79

Russell

-2.00

330.59

-0.60%

60.07

Precidian

-14.13

178.35

-7.92%

105.41

Deutsche Bank

-5.25

171.83

-3.06%

18.35

RBS Securities

4.01

153.60

2.61%

21.13

Jefferies

-

99.80

-

7.77

FocusShares

1.14

97.82

1.17%

36.07

Teucrium

-5.16

95.81

-5.39%

40.11

FFCM

-8.48

42.45

-19.97%

16.36

Exchange Traded Concepts

23.00

32.93

69.85%

31.23

Morgan Stanley

-

31.59

-

3.38

Columbia

-

23.12

-

4.03

Pax World

1.13

19.54

5.79%

6.32

FactorShares

-

16.98

-

8.53

CitiGroup

-

7.70

-

3.48

Fidelity

-

-

-

41.58

Goldman Sachs

-

-

-

24.78


Size And Liquidity

The 10 biggest ETFs on the market included on our "ETF Giants" table below remained unchanged in March, with SPY leading the way, followed by the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD - News) physical bullion ETF, and Vanguard's VWO.

Also, SPY by far remained the most heavily traded ETF, followed by IWM and the Q's, as our "Liquidity Mavens" table below shows.

ETF Giants

Ticker

Name

Issuer

April 2012 Flows

April 2012 AUM ($, M)

April 2012 Turnover

SPY

SPDR S'P 500

SSgA

-1,685.73

103,118.67

439,786.71

GLD

SPDR Gold

SSgA

-412.91

67,837.78

33,182.80

VWO

Vanguard MSCI Emerging Markets

Vanguard

597.21

53,869.05

19,372.87

EEM

iShares MSCI Emerging Markets

BlackRock

-683.34

38,515.20

45,467.08

EFA

iShares MSCI EAFE

BlackRock

-802.88

36,486.56

21,544.32

QQQ

PowerShares QQQ

Invesco PowerShares

-2,582.09

32,667.12

73,450.14

IVV

iShares S'P 500

BlackRock

386.74

30,190.87

9,240.33

TIP

iShares Barclays TIPS Bond

BlackRock

120.37

22,741.62

2,475.29

VTI

Vanguard Total Stock Market

Vanguard

276.16

21,623.59

2,789.00

LQD

iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond

BlackRock

622.46

20,550.44

4,514.78


Liquidity Mavens

Ticker

Name

Issuer

April 2012 Flows

April 2012 AUM ($, M)

April 2012 Turnover

SPY

SPDR S'P 500

SSgA

-1,685.73

103,118.67

439,786.71

IWM

iShares Russell 2000

BlackRock

1,008.36

15,611.35

89,384.38

QQQ

PowerShares QQQ

Invesco PowerShares

-2,582.09

32,667.12

73,450.14

EEM

iShares MSCI Emerging Markets

BlackRock

-683.34

38,515.20

45,467.08

GLD

SPDR Gold

SSgA

-412.91

67,837.78

33,182.80

XLF

Financial Select SPDR

SSgA

-324.23

6,891.79

24,782.09

EFA

iShares MSCI EAFE

BlackRock

-802.88

36,486.56

21,544.32

XLE

Energy Select SPDR

SSgA

-63.04

7,767.00

19,929.04

VWO

Vanguard MSCI Emerging Markets

Vanguard

597.21

53,869.05

19,372.87

TLT

iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond

BlackRock

-356.77

2,924.62

18,424.41

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