Bull market steers ETF assets to big gains

The roaring pace of the equity markets has helped drive total exchange-traded-fund assets up 23% over the past 12 months. The latest data from the Investment Company Institute shows that through April, domestic-equity-ETF assets reached more than $854 billion, up from $696 billion 12 months earlier. International-equity ETF assets topped $355 billion, from $280 billion a year ago, and bond ETFs topped $258 billion, up from $208 billion a year ago. “This kind of growth is a combination of the market being up strongly, and also reflects investor adoption of ETFs,” said Todd Rosenbluth, director of ETF research at S&P Capital IQ. For April, the value of ETF gross issuance ($108 billion) exceeded gross redemptions ($98.8 billion) by $9.7 billion. “We're seeing investors use ETFs more, and we're seeing more advisers and investors use ETFs both as core and in a more-tactical way to diversify a portfolio,” Mr. Rosenbluth added. “The ETF growth trend is a higher rate than you will see in mutual funds, particularly in domestic-equity funds, where the rate has slowly moved back, but not at this kind of pace.”