29/04/25 11:57:11

ETFs: “Sell-off over”

The wave of selling seems to be over and the first buyers are venturing back into the market. The focus is on the large ETFs on the MSCI World and S&P 500, but turnover is significantly lower than before.


29 April 2025. FRANKFURT (Börse Frankfurt). After many turbulent weeks with extremely high turnover, ETF trading has calmed down somewhat. “We can breathe a sigh of relief at the moment,” explains Ivo Orlemann, who trades ETFs for ICF Bank. People are also buying again. “But there is no clear direction.” Moritz Kretschmann from Lang & Schwarz also reports declining turnover and buying and selling in equal measure. Stock markets around the world have recently recovered, with the DAX up 12 percent since the beginning of the year and the Stoxx Europe 600 up 3 percent. By contrast, the S&P 500 is still down 6 percent and the Nasdaq 100 over 7 percent.

Good dividend payers in demand

The interest in European equities that has been evident for several weeks has therefore continued, as Frank Mohr from Société Générale reports. “The Euro Stoxx 50 and the Stoxx Europe 600, for example, are in demand,” he explains. ETFs that track US equities are traded less than usual - and when they are, they are often sold. Puschmann mainly sees purchases for the large ETFs on the MSCI World, but also the S&P 500 again. “After many weeks of selling, the picture is now balanced.” According to Orlemann, the VanEck Morningstar Developed Markets Dividend Leaders (NL0011683594) is also being “diligently bought”. This focuses on shares of companies from industrialized countries that pay steady dividends. An ESG filter is also used. 

Ivo Orlemann

US equities still a “flop”. Despite the recent recovery, US stocks are still among the “flop stocks” this year. With a drop of almost 15 percent since the beginning of the year, they are in fifth place on the list of the ETF platform justETF with the biggest losers (as at April 28). Only shares from Turkey, Taiwan and Thailand (down 20 percent each) and Indonesia (down 18 percent) have performed even worse. The best performing country is currently Poland with a plus of 28 percent. It is followed by Greece (19 percent), Spain (18 percent), Mexico and Austria (13 percent each).

New armaments ETF: from 0 to 1.2 billion euros

The big run on armaments ETFs seems to be over. “There is always something going on, but much less than in previous months,” notes Orlemann. Mostly it is about VanEck Defense (IE000YYE6WK5) and WisdomTree Europe Defence (IE0002Y8CX98), which focuses on European equities. The latter was only issued in March, but has already raised over 1.2 billion euros in funds. The ETF invests in companies that focus exclusively on defense (“pure players”). The largest positions are currently BAE Systems from the UK, Rheinmetall from Germany, Leonardo from Italy and Thales from France.

According to Orlemann, VanEck Rare Earth and Strategic Metals (IE0002PG6CA6) is also in demand. “This is probably to do with the new export restrictions imposed by China, the main producer of rare earths,” he suspects. 

Sales of US government bonds, little interest in crypto ETFs

There is currently a clear trend in bond ETF trading: “We are seeing a lot of sales of ETFs that track US Treasuries,” notes Mohr. “The volume is definitely high.” US government bonds are also currently on the sell lists in bond trading as a result of US President Trump's erratic tariff policy.

Although Bitcoin has recently risen significantly, this is not reflected in trading in crypto ETNs. “There are more purchases again, but the volumes are low,” notes Kretschmann. “If there is any trading at all, it's mostly VanEck Bitcoin (DE000A28M8D0),” explains Orlemann. Bitcoin currently costs just under 95,000 US dollars, after a low of under 78,000 US dollars at the beginning of April.

 

by Anna-Maria Borse, 29. April 2025, Deutsche Börse AG ©

Anna-Maria Borse is a financial and business editor specializing in the financial market/stock exchange and economic topics. Feedback and questions to redaktion@deutsche-boerse.com