May ETP launch review: smart beta dominates

This report aggregates newly launched funds in May and highlights the performance of the funds launched in April.

• May saw the launch of 32 new ETFs; smart beta and leveraged funds made up most new launches
• 17 funds were launched in the Americas, 11 added in Emea and four launched in the Apac region.
• 26 equity funds added in May. Three were fixed income and three were alternative

May new listings

Smart beta ETFs represented almost half of all the funds launched in May. Issuers added funds that were weighted based on various fundamentals and also proprietary strategies developed by research groups. Non-market cap weighted ETFs have become more and more prevalent as issuers develop alternative strategies to attract investor attention.

May saw the launch of five leveraged funds targeting highly volatile sectors. Direxion, one of the most prolific leverage houses, launched four new triple leveraged funds which offer bullish or bearish exposure to both the oil & gas exploration and production and biotech sectors. True to industry form, the oil & gas funds came up with the obligatory amusing tickers of GUSH and DRIP for the bullish and bearish funds respectively.

The three fixed income funds which listed in May were all European listed with exposure to convertible bonds, high yield US bonds and short maturity euro bonds

April flows

Flows into funds launched in April were dramatically lower than the previous month's funds. In total, the 33 funds managed to gain $328m in May.

The Americas were responsible for $139m in asset flows for the funds added in April. The largest gainer in the region has been the Innovator IBD 50 Fund ETF (FFTY) which has added almost $35m since its April 10^th inception.

Europe's largest earner has been the iShares MSCI China A UCITS ETF (CNYA), which has led all ETFs featured in Markit's April launch report after seeing $61m in asset flows since the beginning of April. Overall, the six funds added in the European region have gained over $101m in assets since their inception.

The Apac region brought in $88m in assets across the five funds that were launched in April. The largest share went to the XIE Shares FTSE Chimerica ETF (3161) which has gained $28m in assets since April 16^th.

Download full article

S&P Global provides industry-leading data, software and technology platforms and managed services to tackle some of the most difficult challenges in financial markets. We help our customers better understand complicated markets, reduce risk, operate more efficiently and comply with financial regulation.

This article was published by S&P Global Market Intelligence and not by S&P Global Ratings, which is a separately managed division of S&P Global.