US-listed exchange-traded funds focused on the property and utilities sectors saw net outflows in the first four days of last week, while cryptocurrency-themed exchange-traded products attracted investors despite US regulators’ tightening grip on that sector, Trackinsight said in a report March 24.
The 45 real estate ETFs with a combined $59.7 billion in assets tracked by Trackinsight declined an average of 3.38% and saw $253.6 million in net outflows during the four-day period from March 20 to March 23. March, says the report from the global ETF data provider.
Year-to-date through March 23, the Trackinsight monitors real estate ETFs have seen net outflows of $2.17 billion, the report showed.
The decline in the real estate ETF market was driven by the poor performance of prominent companies such as Equinix, Public Storage, American Tower Corp. and Crown Castle, whose share prices fell from 3.5% to 5.0% over the four-day period. so.
“On Friday, real estate investment trusts (REITs) bounced back after a continuous fall in recent weeks that led some of these securities to approach their 2023 lows and become more attractive from a technical analysis point of view,” Trackinsight CEO Philippe Malaise said in comments emailed to Pensions and investments Monday. “As a result, that probably triggered some investors to buy in to take advantage of those dips and erased some of the losses for the week.”
Real estate ETFs were not the worst performers in the four-day period, the report said.
“The utilities sector was the week’s poorest sector … as investors shunned safe-haven stocks,” the report said.
The nine utilities ETFs with assets totaling $23.2 billion tracked by Trackinsight were down an average of about 4% and had net outflows totaling $81.6 million during the four-day period last week. Utilities sector ETFs have seen net outflows totaling $210.8 million this year through March 23, the report said.
By contrast, the 12 cryptocurrency-themed ETPs with assets totaling $1.16 billion tracked by Trackinsight were up an average of 5.6% for the four-day period and recorded $49.7 million in inflows. Year-to-date through March 23, cryptocurrency-themed ETPs have raised $59.5 million in net inflows, the report said.
“Even as US regulators tighten their grip on the crypto sector, cryptocurrency prices remained near their highs,” the report said.
