This week's highlights
A cooling in trade tensions, strong U.S. economic data and stimulus from the ECB contributed to a risk-on sentiment last week. Financial sector funds (BNKS and MVB) and high conviction growth funds such as RBTZ, ROBO and ACDC all performed strongly. Asia-focused funds HJPN and IKO were also amongst the top performers. The week’s best performing ETF was Vanguard Global Value Equity Active ETF (VVLU), which returned 5.8%.
Gold fell for a second consecutive week, with GOLD and PMGOLD, as well as gold mining funds (GDX and MNRS) all amongst the weeks’ poorest performers. Silver (ETPMAG) also declined, while palladium (ETPMPD) pushed-ahead to new all-time highs above US$1,600 per ounce.
Total flows into domestically domiciled ETFs were $308m, while outflows totalled $134m. The biggest inflows were into cash (AAA), domestic equities (STW and IOZ) and gold (GOLD). Outflows were from U.S. equities (IVV) and Australian government bonds (IGB).
AAA was the most traded fund last week, though the combined volume of IVV and IHVV made S&P 500 the most traded index exposure for the week. GOLD continued to trade above average volumes.
ETFS ROBO Global Robotics and Automation ETF (ROBO) returned 4.1% for the week, led higher by strong performances across the Industrial and Information Technology sectors in the U.S., Japan and Germany.