Commodity exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded products listed in Europe hit a monthly high in February as economic uncertainty pushed investors into safe haven assets, according to ETFGI, a London-based ETF industry consultant. The broader European market gathered net inflows of $2.92bn in total last month, reflecting 17 consecutive months of net inflows for European-listed ETFs/ETPs.

Net gatherings in February of $2.9bn for European ETFs/ETPs mark the 17th consecutive month of positive net inflows for the region.

Commodity ETFs/ETPs gathered the largest net inflows with $2.66bn, followed by fixed income ETFs/ETPs with $2.12bn. These flows were offset by equity ETFs/ETPs, which experienced net outflows of $2.19bn. The net inflows of $2.66bn into commodity ETFs/ETPs is a record high. The previous record was $2.12bn in September 2012.

Deborah Fuhr, managing partner at ETFGI, said: “February was another volatile month for equity markets which drove investors to invest net flows into government bonds and gold.   The S&P Europe 350 index was down –2.07% marking the third consecutive month loss.  The S&P 500 closed the month down 0.13%. Despite recent uncertainty, emerging markets gain 0.31% in February, while developed markets outside of the U.S. declined 1%.”

ETF Securities gathered the largest net inflows in February with $1.36bn, followed by iShares with $771m and Vanguard with $330m net inflows.

So far this year, ETF Securities has gathered the largest net inflows with $1.74bn, followed by iShares with $1.55bn and Think ETFs with $522m net inflows.

MSCI has the largest amount of ETF/ETP assets tracking its benchmarks reflecting 22.0% market share; STOXX is second with 21.3% market share, followed by S&P Dow Jones with 12.3% market share.

As of the end of February 2016, the European industry has total assets under management of $485bn across 2,199 ETFs/ETPs, with 6,846 listings, from 52 providers listed on 25 exchanges.