June ETF Flows: SPY, BOND Both In Top 10

U.S. investors kept pouring money into ETFs last month, as both equities and fixed income were in favor at a time of ongoing volatility surrounding the eurozone’s economic crisis. Overall, $13.11 billion flowed into ETFs, and total assets—including market movements—rose 3.7 percent to $1.179 trillion.

The SPDR S'P 500 ETF (SPY - News), the world’s biggest ETF, was the most popular fund in June, hauling in $3.60 billion, and ending the month with $103.73 billion in assets. Another broad equities fund, the Nasdaq 100-fouces PowerShares QQQ Trust (QQQ - News), was in the No. 2 slot, adding $1.40 billion and ending the month with almost $32 billion in assets.

A number of bond funds and a gold ETF were also among the Top 10 ETFs in June, as investors rode out every twist and turn in the eurozone’s debt crisis, which created loads of volatility. Even though the quarter ended on a positive note, with policymakers giving off signs they were near a far-reaching agreement to rescue weaker EU members, the Dow Jones industrial average slid 2.5 percent in the whole quarter.

That helps explain why bond ETF were popular in June, just as they were in May . The Pimco Total Return Bond ETF (BOND - News), for example, was on IndexUniverse’s "Top Gainers" list for the second time in three months, gathering $495.5 million in June and bringing the $2 billion in assets threshold into focus. The four-month-old fund ended June with $1.72 billion. It was No. 10 on the creations list.

Also, the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD - News), the physical bullion ETF, attracted $502.2 million in fresh AUM, bringing assets in the world’s second-biggest ETF to $65.73 billion and providing another example of how investors are grappling with all the uncertainty coursing through the global economy.

The iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond Fund (LQD - News) and the Vanguard Short-Term Bond ETF (BSV - News) were on the top 10 list, gathering $1.32 billion and $591.2 million in new assets, respectively.

Top Gainers

Asset Classes

AMJ And Other Quirky Tales

Additionally, the creations that brought the huge JPMorgan Alerian MLP ETN (AMJ - News) to the 129 million share limit imposed by its sponsor J.P. Morgan Chase, were plainly evident on our “Top Gainers” list last month.

The ETN pulled in $587.7 million in June, and most of that was carried off by J.P. Morgan itself, as we wrote about in a recent piece titled “AMJ At A Premium, But Will It Last?”

AMJ, which focuses largely on energy-related master limited partnerships such as pipelines, has grown in size rather quickly because it’s paying a hefty dividend at a time when official short-term interest rates are near zero. AMJ ended June with $4.87 billion in assets, or almost 34 percent more than at the end of 2011, according to data compiled by IndexUniverse.

Biggest Losers

The other noteworthy feature in last month’s flows report was the presence of many Vanguard funds on the redemptions list, beginning with the Vanguard Small-Cap ETF (VB - News). That ETF suffered outflows of $965.2 million, putting it at the top of our “Biggest Losers” table.

But it’s important for readers to take Vanguard’s heavy footprint on the June redemptions list with a grain of salt.

Vanguard has told IndexUniverse in the past that it rebalances many of its funds each month in a two-step process that begins at the end of one month and concludes at the beginning of the next. So, many of the funds that are on June the end-of-month outflows list will be on an inflows list sometime in early July.

Overall, the ETF sponsor “League Table” was stable, with the “big three”—BlackRock’s iShares unit, State Street Global Advisors, and Vanguard—still on top.

One noteworthy aspect of the table was the $528.7 million Pimco gathered last month—almost all of that coming from BOND, the ETF version of Bill Gross’ Total Return Fund. Pimco is now the 13 th -biggest U.S. ETF sponsor, and seems to be steadily moving up the ranks, with No. 11 Charles Schwab now in its sights.

League Table

ETF Giants

Liquidity Mavens