Tradeweb has reported strong net buying of equity ETFs on its European ETF marketplace in September, a month in which the platform experienced its second-highest total traded volume ever.
Adriano Pace, Head of Equities (Europe) at Tradeweb.
Tradeweb’s total platform flow in Europe amounted to €35.5 billion with 75% of transactions executed via Tradeweb’s Automated Intelligent Execution Tool (AiEX).
Adriano Pace, Head of Equities (Europe) at Tradeweb, commented, “September marked the end of our strongest quarter yet, with total traded volume reaching €102.5bn, up €18.2bn from Q2 2019.
“Last month, we also announced our collaboration with EuroCCP to facilitate central clearing for European ETFs and, subsequently, help clients minimise settlement fails and enhance their trading workflows.”
Trading activity in equity ETFs represented 60% of overall platform flow in September, on par with its previous 12-month rolling average. Buying activity represented 58% of the asset class’s total volume.
Investors were particularly bullish about North American equities with ‘buys’ outstripping ‘sells’ by 30 percentage points.
In terms of European equities, investors were less confident; buys outpaced sells by just two percentage points.
Combined trading activity in North American and European equity ETFs accounted for nearly 40% of the overall platform flow.
Global equity ETFs were also in demand, representing 11% of the platform’s total flow and recording 63% buying activity by volume.
By contrast, fixed income ETFs saw sells surpass buys by four percentage points with the asset class accounting for 35% of total platform flow, also on par with its previous 12-month rolling average.
Government bond ETFs and corporate bond ETFs saw 55% and 54% net selling activity, respectively.
Source: Tradeweb.
The iShares Core Corp Bond UCITS ETF (IEAC LN) was September’s most heavily-traded instrument on Tradeweb’s European ETF platform. The fund, which offers investor exposure to EUR-denominated investment-grade bonds across sectors, returned to the top spot, a position it last occupied in August 2018.
Source: Tradeweb.
US-listed ETFs
Total consolidated US ETF notional value traded in September 2019 was $11.7bn. Equity ETFs accounted for 37% and fixed income ETFs for 56% of total platform flow, with the remainder comprised of commodity and specialty ETFs. Over 56% of US ETF trades were executed via the Tradeweb AiEX tool.
Adam Gould, Head of US Equities at Tradeweb, said, “September was another busy month on the US ETF platform, particularly for fixed income ETFs which made up 56% of our notional volume. In addition, seven of the top ten most actively traded funds on Tradeweb were fixed income ETFs, and for the first time, our three highest volume products traded were all benchmarked to Treasuries.”