July Thematic Review: China-themed ETFs Shine

Assets under Management in thematic ETFs witnessed a growth of +1.03% in July, amounting to $288 billion, driven by positive performance globally. Indeed, the returns across themes reached an increase of +4.78% during July, resulting in a year-to-date gain of +18.59% on average. Additionally, significant net inflows have been recorded: +$3.3 billion over the same period, totaling +$7.7 billion since early January.

The performance for the month showed positive results for 63 themes while only six posted negative outcomes. More specifically, 41 themes beat the MSCI World Index (up 3.29% for the month) whereas 28 underperformed.

Nine distinct themes exhibited a double-digit performance for the month, namely China Digitalization, China Disruptive Technology, and Emerging Market Digitalization. They emerged as top performers with gains reaching +17.40%, +15.98%, and +13.68% respectively. By contrast, the weakest performing themes were Cryptocurrency, Wind Energy, and Solar Energy with losses of 1.69%, 1.75%, and 3.60% respectively.

In July, not only did the Net Zero 2050 theme see the highest inflows (+$985 million over the month), but it is also seeing the most inflows since the year started, with a cumulative inflow of +$8.3 billion. On the flip side, Alternative Energy witnessed the largest outflows both in July and YTD, totaling $268 million and $1.5 billion respectively.

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