WisdomTree European thematic quarterly update
Thematic universe overview
- AUM in thematic Exchange Traded Funds (“ETFs”) and open-ended funds stands at $289 billion as of end of March 2022. ETFs’ market share hovers around 13%, with a total AUM of $44 billion.
- Flows have remained positive in Q1 2022, with $7.3 billion across ETFs and open-ended funds. However, negative
performance across many themes led to a decrease in the overall asset under management of $33 billion. - ETFs attracted $1.7 billion inflows this quarter, slightly below the $2.5 to $3 billion observed in the previous three quarters. It is still more than in the whole of 2019, though. In turn, open-ended funds gathered $5.6 billion, a
relatively small number since it is smaller than this category’s monthly flow average in 2021.
Recent yearly flows in Europe
Europe-domiciled thematic AUM evolution and ETFs’ market share
Thematic universe overview (continued)
- Globally, AUM in thematic products has also reduced to $536 billion on negative performance.
- Within open-ended funds, most of the flows went into the sub-cluster “Climate Change and Sustainability”
and, more specifically, in multi-theme, diversified funds (at the sub-cluster level). Climate Change & Sustainability products gathered $4.2 billion overall. ETFs continue to gather assets in more targeted strategies, i.e., at themes level. Open-ended funds also continue to gather assets in Diversified Thematics with $1.7 billion in Q1. - Open-ended funds and ETFs gathered the most flows in the Environment Pressures cluster. Open-ended fund
focused on Technological Shifts recorded a negative quarter, with -$2.5 billion. ETFs in that cluster resisted better, with inflows of $0.3 billion.
AUM in Thematics by regions (Last 10Y)
YTD flows in Europe by wrapper in cluster, sub-cluster and focused themes
AUM in Europe by wrapper in cluster, sub-cluster and focused themes
Thematic Flows in Europe
- March was the best month of the quarter, with $2.4 billion in open-ended funds and $1.7 billion in ETFs.
- The Ukraine War and the rebirth of inflation across the developed world also impacted flows in thematic products. Sustainable Energy Production continues to gather significant flows in both wrappers with $1.32 billion of inflows. Agriculture also gathered the favours of investors of both wrappers. Cybersecurity was the second-highest asset gatherer in ETFs.
- Semiconductors and Blockchain ETFs close the top 5 with $375 and $100 million inflows respectively.
- On the other side of the ledger, HealthTech and Digital Health saw large outflows across both wrappers. Artificial Intelligence and Cloud suffered from the value rotation away from growth stocks.
Month on month thematic flows
QTD Top/Bottom flows in Europe ETFs and QTD Top/Bottom flows in mutual funds
YTD Top/Bottom flows in Europe ETFs and YTD Top/Bottom flows in mutual funds
Thematic performance and launches in Europe
- Agriculture was the only theme to perform positively this quarter following the rally in agricultural commodities. Space followed just behind, the only other theme to beat the MSCI All Country world.
- The fact that Cybersecurity and Sustainable Energy Production are also in the Top 5 per performance highlight investors’ focus on themes linked to the Ukraine War.
- The Bottom 5 is exclusively composed of themes in the Technological Shifts cluster. Growth stocks suffered
from the value rotation spurred by inflation and the hawkish turn of the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank. Platforms&Digital Markets, Rise of China Tech and Cloud Computing suffered the most with around -20% quarterly performance
Yearly thematic launches in Europe
Top 5/Bottom 5 by QTD performance and Top 5/Bottom 5 by YTD performance
Dispersion of YTD performance of all ETFs and mutual funds by themes in Europe