27/05/25 14:22:13

ETFs: German equities in demand worldwide

DAX ETFs, long in the shadows, are now all the rage, all over the world. Other European equities are also popular, but US equities are not. In addition, defense ETFs continue to be very popular.


27 May 2025 FRANKFURT (Börse Frankfurt). Buying continues on the ETF market. “The trend continues to be towards European, including German, equities and away from US equities, albeit not as pronounced as before,” explains Frank Mohr from Société Générale. Overall, inflows still predominate, while volumes have declined somewhat. Ivo Orlemann, who trades ETFs for ICF Bank, reports “normal business”. “Defense ETFs remain the absolute top seller for us,” he adds.

US President Trump's new tariff threat last Friday only caused a brief setback on the stock market. The DAX climbed to new highs again on Tuesday morning. At midday, the index stands at 24,230 points.

Mixed picture for World ETFs

“Investors are looking towards Europe and are focusing on local shares, including German ones,” explains Mohr. Examples include the DAX trackers from iShares (DE0005933931) and Xtrackers (LU0274211480) as well as Euro Stoxx 50 ETFs from iShares (IE00B53L3W79) and Amundi (LU1681047236).

S&P 500 index funds (IE00B5BMR087), on the other hand, were mostly on the sell lists. Mohr reports a mixed picture for MSCI World ETFs, with a small buy overhang. Moritz Kretschmann from Lang & Schwarz reports purchases and sales of ETFs on the major indices such as MSCI World, S&P 500 and Nasdaq. “Turnover in Asian equities has increased, spread across many products,” adds the trader.

Mohr

Frank Mohr

Germany's shares among the top performers.

Germany is now one of the top five countries with the best share price performance worldwide, as figures from the ETF platform justETF show. Since the beginning of the year, German equities have gained 20 percent, putting them in fifth place. Greek and Polish shares (up 31% each) and Spanish and Austrian shares (up 25% each) have performed even better. The “flop country” is Turkey (down 21 percent). Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Malaysia recorded losses of between 9 and 15 percent.

Popular defense ETFs

Most trading in sector ETFs revolves around tech stocks, with buys and sells, as Mohr reports. He predominantly sees purchases in banking ETFs, such as the Amundi Euro Stoxx Banks (LU1829219390) and the iShares Stoxx Europe 600 Banks (DE000A0F5UJ7). Gold mining ETFs were also very well received due to the high gold price, especially L&G Gold Mining (IE00B3CNHG25).

In addition, demand for defense trackers remains high, as all three traders note. In focus: the VanEck Defense (IE000YYE6WK5), the WisdomTree Europe Defence (IE0002Y8CX98) and the Global X Defence Tech (IE000JCW3DZ3). The VanEck ETF has now collected USD 5.2 billion in assets. The share price has risen by 31% since the beginning of the year and has more than doubled since the start of 2024.

US rather than European corporates

According to Mohr, money market trackers such as the Xtrackers II EUR Overnight Rate Swap (LU0290358497) remain the best-selling bond ETFs. “European corporate bonds are also being sold and US bonds bought,” he adds.

Gold ETCs still in demand, back and forth in crypto ETNs

Gold and Bitcoin continue to be a hot topic - both as a supposed safe haven in the face of erratic US policy and growing US government debt. The price of gold is currently approaching its record again at just under USD 3,300. Bitcoin reached a new high of just under USD 112,000 last Thursday and is currently barely lower.

At Lang & Schwarz, the focus is mostly on gold ETCs such as Xetra-Gold (DE000A0S9GB0), Euwax Gold (DE000EWG4CR2) and Invesco Physical Gold (IE00B579F325). For crypto ETN trading, Kretschmann reports mostly purchases, but recently also sales. He sees Bitcoin and Ethereum in the lead, as well as smaller currencies such as Sui. Sui is available on the marketplaces of Deutsche Börse as a classic tracker certificate, namely from Valour (CH1108679080).

By Anna-Maria Borse, 27 May 2025, Deutsche Börse AG ©

Anna-Maria Borse is a financial and business editor specializing in the financial market/stock exchange and economic topics.

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