Vanguard ETFs claim first, second, and third place for inflows

A trio of Vanguard ETFs topped April inflows, pulling in over $1.1 billion, according to Betashares' Australian ETF review.

The Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETF brought in $533.6 million in inflows, followed by the Vanguard MSCI Index International Shares (Hedged) ETF with $374.5 million, and the Vanguard MSCI Index International Shares ETF at $262.2 million. The first two ETFs are also the largest by market capitalisation at $19.27 billion and $10.47 billion, respectively.

Year to date, Vanguard has recorded the highest ETF issuer flows, amassing $5.3 billion, 33.28% of the industry total.

Vanguard Investments Australia managing director Daniel Shrimski said that although markets were volatile in April, most of its investors stayed the course and didn't panic.

"... they kept their money in the market or added to their portfolios," Shrimski said.

"We've had a very strong start to the year, and we're proud that Australians are continuing to embrace Vanguard's investing philosophy with our low-cost ETFs."

Betashares also posted strong inflows over the period ($4.3 billion), which, when combined with Vanguard, accounted for 60.2% of industry flows.

Meanwhile, the Magellan Global Fund (Open Class) (Managed Fund) saw the most outflows (-$92.4 million), followed by the Betashares Australian High Interest Cash ETF (-$90.5 million), and the VanEck MSCI International Small Companies Quality ETF ($64.1 million).

Magellan's year-to-date outflows dwarfed all other ETF issuers, bleeding $285.6 million - far ahead of Franklin Templeton (-$80.5 million) and Platinum (-$75.2 million), which had the next largest outflows.

Total industry inflows for the month were just shy of a record set in January at $4.46 billion.

Betashares noted that the combination of "very strong" ETF inflows and positive market performance pushed total funds under management in the Australian ETF industry to $258.9 billion - an increase of $8.8 billion, or 3.43% for the month.

Over the past year, however, the Australian ETF industry has grown by $63.96 billion.

The best performing products month were mostly crypto related exposures, with the Monochrome Bitcoin ETF returning 13.32%, followed by the the Betashares Crypto Innovators ETF (11.86%), the Betashares Bitcoin ETF (11.15%), the VanEck Bitcoin ETF (10.45%).

Rounding out the top five was the VanEck Global Defence ETF, which returned 10.14%.