| Emerging markets dominate Last year saw commodities have their time in the sun, producing returns in a year that saw double digit drawdowns in both equities and fixed income. Another beneficiary of a challenging year were the emerging markets. While the MSCI EM Index fell roughly 20 per cent last year, the asset class showed signs of a recovery in the fourth quarter, climbing nearly 10 per cent.
Our interview this week is with Lotfi Ladjemi, UK ETF specialist at Franklin Templeton, who reports that investors have turned to emerging markets ETFs, commenting: "We believe that catalysts for growth in emerging markets include a shift in China’s stance towards managing COVID-19 as well as a strong growth forecast for India, continuing its performance trend in 2022."
January is seeing, whisper it, a rise in the price of bitcoin and a quiet buzz that the crypto winter at least in bitcoin terms may be thawing a little. This week saw quite the spat between Grayscale, USD12 billion in assets, largely in its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, and the SEC and an open letter from a potential takeover offer, Osprey Funds (USD1.5 billion in assets), a fellow crypto trust provider, run along with REX Shares, by Greg King, who has a substantial ETP pedigree. Read our story for all the details but expect more of this type of activity in the crypto asset management space.
Despite last year’s challenging markets, it was indeed, as predicted, the second highest inflow year for ETFs on record with ETF data providers ETFGI reporting that the global ETF industry gathered USD69.37 billion in net inflows during December, bringing year-to-date net inflows to USD856.16 billion, the second highest level of annual net inflows, behind USD1.29 trillion gathered in 2021.
During December 2022, assets invested globally in the ETF/ETP industry decreased by 2.7 per cent, from USD9.48 trillion at the end of November to USD9.23 trillion but saw the 43rd month of consecutive net inflows.
Do remember that the nominations are still open for our Service Providers in the 2023 European ETF awards.
To nominate your chosen companies please click here.
We also published our Global Outlook for ETFs in early January, in association with Qontigo’s STOXX index business, with views from investors in ETFs representing billions of dollars.
To read the Outlook report please click here.
Beverly Chandler, Managing Editor For live updates please follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Companies in this issue
Franklin Templeton
Grayscale
Osprey Funds
Qontigo
STOXX
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