Global exchange-traded fund assets surged by 6.7% in the first quarter, to $1.399 trillion, with investors pouring a net $41.4 billion into ETFs — more than double their investments in the first quarter of 2010, BlackRock Inc. said.
"Net inflows in the first quarter indicate that the exchange-traded fund/exchange-traded product industry is off to a much faster start this year, since the quarter is historically slow in terms of net new assets," Deborah Fuhr, global head of ETF research and implementation strategy at BlackRock, said in a press release Tuesday.
BlackRock said that there are 3,724 such products from 178 providers, trading on 52 exchanges, up from 2,849 products from 147 providers, trading on 44 exchanges in the first quarter of 2010.
"In 2011's first quarter, global investment markets were shaken by a range of extraordinary events — from social and political unrest throughout the Middle East and northern Africa, to unpredictable weather and the still-unresolved nuclear event in Japan following a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami," Fuhr said. "In this period, $41.4 billion of net new assets flowed into a broad spectrum of ETF products as investors responded to these events and were able to implement appropriate, highly focused investment strategies in a timely fashion."
