March 9th marked the 25th anniversary of the listing of the first ETF in Canada on the Toronto Stock Exchange: the TIPs (Toronto 35 Index Participation Fund) tracking the TSX 35 index. The TIPS ETF listed nearly three years before the first ETF the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) was listed in the United States on January 29, 1993.
In February 2015, ETFs/ETPs listed in Canada saw net inflows of US$1.15 Bn. Equity ETFs/ETPs gathered the largest net inflows with US$743 Mn, followed by fixed income ETFs/ETPs with US$290 Mn, while commodity ETFs/ETPs experienced net outflows of US$29 Mn, according to ETFGI’s monthly ETF and ETP global insight report for February. The Canadian ETF industry had 355 ETFs, with 502 listings, assets of US$65 Bn, from 9 providers on 1 exchange at the end of February .
“Investors allocated the majority of net new assets to equities as the US market rebounded from a difficult January to end February with both the S&P 500 and the Dow up 6% for the month. Volatility declined during the month. Developed markets were up 6% for the month, while emerging and frontier markets were up 3%” according to Deborah Fuhr, managing partner of ETFGI.
BMO AM gathered the largest net ETF/ETP inflows in February with US$318 Mn, followed by iShares with US$302 Mn and Vanguard with US$237 Mn net inflows. Year to date BMO AM gathered the largest net ETF/ETP inflows YTD with US$1.05 Bn, followed by Vanguard with US$416 Mn and RBC Global AM with US$147 Mn net inflows.
The top 100 ETFs/ETPs, out of 355, account for 85.0% of Canadian ETF/ETP assets. Only 12 ETFs/ETPs have greater than US$1 Bn in assets, while 232 ETFs/ETPs have less than US$100 Mn in assets.