ETF Buyers Get Their Passports in 2017

As goes performance, so go the flows.

With many international markets and regions outperforming the US this year during the just-completed first half, ETF inflows for overseas equity exposure have picked up substantially.

State Street’s Matthew Bartolini is out with a look at the first half of 2017 for ETF flows, including the below bit on international markets…

International Made Great Again

Investors made use of their passports in 2017, much more so than in the past years. Through the first six months of the year, investors have poured more than $80 billion into funds that provide exposure to stocks outside the US. A figure that represents the best start to a year ever for international funds, and with over $20 billion deposited in June alone, it also caps off the segment’s best back-to-back quarterly performance ever.

The shift overseas was broad based, as emerging market fund flows topped $10 billion for the second quarter in a row, and are also off to their best first half figure on record.

Even currency hedged ETFs, a segment which has been somewhat under pressure as the dollar has sunk 6.44 percent this year, were able to get in on the action with almost $2 billion of inflows year to date.

Here’s the chart, which you may click to embiggen:

Source:

Stick and Move
State Street Global Advisors – July 1017