Shares, gold, cryptos - everything is currently valued higher than ever. Nevertheless, the buying mood continues. Major indices are in demand, as are tech stocks. Only ESG ETFs are currently struggling.
12 March 2024 FRANKFURT (Frankfurt Stock Exchange). The constant new all-time highs on the stock market are generating high turnover for ETF traders. "The trading volume is very good," reports Frank Mohr from Société Générale, for example. "And purchases far outweigh purchases." Fabian Wörndl from Lang & Schwarz and Holger Heinrich from Baader Bank also report brisk trading and many purchases. "There is also a lot going on with crypto ETNs and gold ETCs," adds Wörndl.
The DAX, S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 climbed to new all-time highs on Friday. At midday on Tuesday, the DAX stood at 17,813 points, slightly below the new record of 17,879 points. Gold and Bitcoin also marked historic highs and are currently trading just below them.
Caution with ESG variants
MSCI World trackers continue to be the top sellers, as the traders explain. "They account for around 40 percent of our turnover," says Mohr. Purchases dominated, with a lot of bets being placed on the iShares Core MSCI World (IE00B4L5Y983), for example. "The sell-offs in the SRI variant of Amundi (IE000Y77LGG9) are striking," notes Mohr. "ESG ETFs are currently no longer in such high demand, probably due to the current poorer performance compared to the classic variant."
The classic MSCI World has gained 5.6 percent since the beginning of the year, while the MSCI World SRI has only gained 3.8 percent. Over longer periods, however, the SRI variant scores points: over three and five years, the returns for the SRI index are 9.7 percent and 13.5 percent compared to 9.2 percent and 12.2 percent, as figures from MSCI show.
At Baader Bank, too, most of the focus this time is on globally investing ETFs. Heinrich reports purchases for MSCI World and MSCI ACWI trackers, sometimes with (IE00BMZ17W23, IE00BDR55927), sometimes without ESG filter (IE00B7KQ7B66). However, ETFs with a focus on quality (IE00BP3QZ601) or dividends (LU0292096186) are also in demand.
While Baader Bank sees little interest in US equities, S&P 500 ETFs are still in high demand at Société Générale. "The SPDR S&P 500 (IE00B6YX5C33) is now always one of the favorites due to its low costs." The total expense ratio of the ETF is now just 0.03 percent. As far as Europe is concerned, according to Heinrich, the major indices are popular on the one hand, but also specific country indices such as the DAX (<DE000A2QP33>) and France's CAC40 (<FR0013380607>) on the other. Also in demand: small cap, momentum and dividend trackers.
Still a lot of confidence in AI shares
Enthusiasm for tech stocks is unbroken. According to Mohr, the Xtrackers Artificial Intelligence & Big Data (IE00BGV5VN51) and the iShares S&P 500 Information Technology (IE00B3WJKG14) are very popular. Utility ETFs are also in demand, and recently also bank index funds again.
In February 2024, VanEck Crypto & Blockchain Innovators (IE00BMDKNW35) and iShares Blockchain Technology (IE000RDRMSD1) were among the best-performing equity ETFs, according to Morningstar. The Invesco CoinShares Global Blockchain (IE00BGBN6P67), the Amundi MSCI Semiconductors ESG Screened (LU1900066033) and the VanEck Defense (IE000YYE6WK5) also performed very well.
More information: www.morningstar.de/de/news/246908/die-etfs-mit-der-besten-und-der-schlechtesten-performance.aspx
The positive performance of the equity markets had already led to brisk ETF purchases in February, as Markus Weis, Head of SPDR Germany at State Street Global Advisors, reports with regard to the February data. "This was another strong month for UCITS ETFs, with inflows of over USD 15.4 billion into equity ETFs and USD 3.4 billion into bond ETFs," explains Weis. Particularly popular: US equity ETFs with USD 5.1 billion in inflows, followed by global ETFs with USD 4.9 billion. Despite the weaker market performance, emerging market ETFs were also able to collect USD 680 million. In the bond tracker business, the focus was on short-dated bonds.
Money market continues to pull ahead - crypto and gold boom continues
In the area of bond ETFs, buying enthusiasm is limited to money market and money market-related ETFs, as Mohr explains. Lyxor Euro Overnight Return (FR0010510800) and Xtrackers II EUR Overnight Rate Swap (LU0290358497) remain particularly popular. "Everything else tends to be sold." This also applies to more specialized funds such as the Amundi US Curve steepening 2-10Y (LU2018762653)
The fact that Bitcoin continues to climb to new heights and reached a new record high of USD 72,779 yesterday is not without consequences: Lang & Schwarz reports many purchases, especially of Bitcoin and Ethereum trackers, such as 21Shares (CH0454664001) and ETC-Group (DE000A27Z304, DE000A3GMKD7). In Solana trackers, on the other hand, both sides are played, for example with the 21Shares Solana Staking (CH1114873776). Due to the new all-time high for gold, there is also a lot going on in gold ETCs, especially in Xetra Gold (DE000A0S9GB0). "But we are seeing buying and selling there."
Equities | |
USA | Purchases |
World | Purchases |
Europe | Purchases/Sales |
Sectors | |
Technology | Purchases |
Bonds | |
Money Market | Purchases |
Crypto-ETNs | |
Bitcoin, Ethereum | Purchases |
Solana | Purchases/Sales |
By Anna-Maria Borse Koch, 12. March 2024 © 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
Borse