/hong-kong-news"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Entertainment","item":{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https://www.thestandard.com.hk/entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"World News","item":{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https://www.thestandard.com.hk/world-news"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":5,"name":"Comment","item":{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https://www.thestandard.com.hk/comment"}}]}]17:T5a5,

Assets held in exchange-traded funds globally broke through the US$7 trillion (HK$54.6 trillion) milestone at the end of last month, according to research and consultancy ETFGI.

During the month ETFs and ETPs listed globally gathered net inflows of US$55.18 billion, bringing year-to-date net inflows to US$428.25 billion which is significantly higher than the US$272.62 billion gathered at this point last year, it said.

Assets invested in the global ETFs/ETPs industry have increased by 5.1 percent, from US$6.66 trillion at the end of July 2020, to US$7 trillion at the end of August, according to ETFGI's August 2020 Global ETFs and ETPs industry landscape insights report.

The S&P 500 enjoyed its best August since 1986, gaining 7.2 percent in the month and up 9.7 percent year to date, said ETFGI managing partner and founder Deborah Fuhr.

The 24 developed ex-US markets were all up for the month with the index up 5.5 percent. Norway (up 8.9 percent) and Japan (up 7.9 percent) gained most while emerging markets gained 2.7 percent, with the US dollar weakness and virus responses impacting performance.

At the end of August, the global industry had 8,287 ETFs/ETPs, with 16,495 listings, assets of $7 trillion, from 474 providers listed on 73 exchanges in 59 countries, it said.

Global ETF assets pass US$7tn mark