ETP assets suffered in August, BlackRock reports

ETP assets decreased during August as low inflows, combined with market events, knocked US$68bn off the global market, BlackRock reports.

Assets under management for the industry were at more than $1.5trn at the end of the month, a decrease of 4% compared to the end of July. Net new assets totalled $1.6bn, compared to $22.6bn in July.

The "risk-off" mood was evident in ETP market flows, says BlackRock. Flows went into fixed income and commodities, which gained $5.6bn and $0.8bn, respectively.

Meanwhile equity ETPs suffered from the risk adverse sentiment and saw outflows of $3.7bn.

This was most evident in the US, where there were $6.4bn of outflows from equity ETFs, driven by emerging markets.

In Europe equity funds had outflows of $2.7bn, while individual country funds had inflows of $3.1bn, with Germany seeing $2.7bn of those.

Outflows were combined with a $70bn negative market and exchange rate move, according to BlackRock, making August the third month this year when ETFs have lost assets. May 2011 saw a decrease of 2%, while June experienced a 1% decrease.

Despite the volatile markets and low risk sentiment, AUM has grown by $378bn (32%) compared to August 2010.