ETP activity falls as equity markets rise

European ETP activity fell last week as equity markets finished higher, having dipped mid-week. The Eurostoxx 50 finished up 4.1%, while the S&P 500 was up 2.1%.

On-exchange ETP turnover fell to €14.8bn, a decline of almost 12% compared to the previous week, according to Lyxor. Regional and strategy ETFs experienced the largest declines; 20% and 32.7%, respectively.

Commodity flows show resilience, with a decline of less than 10%; while sector, style, currency and alternative ETPs were the only categories to see increased activity. Alternatives saw the largest increase - almost 35%.

Trading firm Cowen reports declining primary ETF market volumes; it attributes this to a fall in iShares S&P 500 ETF creations.

There were continued sell-offs in Asia and emerging markets ETFs, overall emerging markets equities ETFs had $3.3bn of outflows; their 10th consecutive week of outflows and the largest in eight weeks. Total global equity ETF outflows were $10.2bn. Europe equity ETFs saw small inflows of $0.4bn.

Fixed income ETFs, meanwhile, saw the biggest flows in seven weeks at $2.8bn. Half of these were from high yield bond ETFs, half from emerging markets bonds ETFs.

Physically-backed silver ETF holdings increased to 563.96 million oz on Friday from 4.58 million oz on the week. Gold ETF holdings fell by 114,064oz to 71.05 million oz.