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Investors step up European equity buying

September saw renewed appetite for European equity ETFs after flows had dropped in August, according to data from Blackrock. But it was another asset class that really stole the show.

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PA Europe

Blackrock said European equity ETFs have now had 13 consecutive months of net inflows –the longest run on record.

European investors chipped in more than $2bn (€1.7bn) in September, as a 5-month period of continuous euro strength/dollar weakness came to an end. The trend breach in currency markets saw US investors leave European equities, however. “$0.5B has been withdrawn from US-listed European equity ETPs over the last two months,” said Blackrock.

They instead refocused their attention on US equities, which received a boost from renewed hopes of tax reform. US small cap ETFs were the prime beneficiary, seeing global net inflows of $2.8bn.

Robotics craze

But September really was the month of the robotics ETFs, which experienced their biggest ever monthly inflows, adding a net $780m.

At the start of 2017, the four global ETFs providing exposure to companies that could benefit from the increasing use of robotics had total assets under management of just $415m. “Today their combined AUM stands at $3.6Bbn. If we include mutual funds, the combined universe of 16 funds currently has an AUM of $14.7bn, up from less than $300m in 2015,” said Blackrock.

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