Dec. 17, 2004 — The combined assets of the nation's exchange-traded funds (ETFs) rose to $211.7 billion at the end of November, from $190.5 billion at the end of October, according to the Investment Company Institute (ICI). ETF assets totaled $151.0 billion at the end of December 2003.
The number of ETFs in operation stood at 149 at the end of November, the same as in the prior month. Of that total, 101 tracked domestic stock indexes and held assets of $173.4 billion; 42 tracked international/global equity indexes and held assets of $30.4 billion; and six bond index ETFs held assets of $7.9 billion.
The ICI noted that assets of domestic equity ETFs increased by $16.2 billion, and international equity ETF assets increased by $4.9 billion.
In November, the value of all ETF shares issued exceeded that of shares redeemed by $11.5 billion. Equity index ETFs experienced a positive net issuance of $11.3 billion, while bond ETFs witnessed a positive net issuance of $212 million. Gross issuance of all ETFs increased in November to $21.0 billion from $9.6 billion in October, and redemptions increased to $9.6 billion from $4.3 billion in October.
Net issuance, which is gross issuance minus redemptions, is roughly equivalent to the unit of net new cash flow that is used for conventional mutual funds.
