Headline figures
Assets Under Management[1]
Chart 1: Assets Under Management of ETFs Listed on the LSE by Asset Type, November 30, 2024 (£bn)
Source: LSEG Lipper
Total ETF assets rose to £1.27trn in November, growing 36% year on year. Money market funds (MMFs) saw the greatest growth in percentage terms over the year (56.8%), but from a low base.
All asset classes grew on a month-on-month basis. Over 12 months, equities grew by 44.2%, commodities by 11.7%, and bonds by 9.3%.
Equity and bond funds comprise the bulk of total assets at 79.6% and 17.8%, respectively.
Flows
Flows by Asset Type
Chart 2: Estimated Net Flows in ETFs Listed on the LSE by Asset Type, November 2024 (£bn)
Source: LSEG Lipper
Total flows for November were considerably up from October’s £13.76bn, at £21.44bn (£138.31bn YTD). This was driven by equity flows, which saw a massive uptick, taking £22.25bn over the month (£122.42bn).
That left all the other asset classes standing, with commodity ETFs taking £100m (£987m YTD), alternatives £32m (-£188m YTD), and money market funds £14m (£4.64bn).
Flat or falling yields buoyed most fixed income sectors. Nevertheless, despite 10-year gilt yields trending down from the first week of the month and the positive if subdued bonds flows in October, fixed income ETFs went into redemption mode over November, with outflows of £959m (inflows of £11.06bn YTD).
Largest Inflows
Chart 3: Ten Best-Selling Lipper Global Classifications, November 2024 (£bn)
Source: LSEG Lipper
US growth continues to exceed that of other developed markets, and its equity market outpaced competitors over November, as the dollar continued to strengthen—facts reflected in flows to Equity US ETFs, which attracted more than double the next most popular classification, at £13.72bn. In September, we had observed a trend to equally weighted S&P 500 funds, but that seems to have been a blip. Investors now seem more than happy to fill their boots with those big, juicy mega-caps, as reflected in the major money-takers in the table below.
Source: LSEG Lipper
Equity Global was the second-best selling classification (£6.3bn, up from £4.75bn), with the bulk of the money going to plain-vanilla index-tracking products (see table below).
Source: LSEG Lipper
US small and mid caps also moved up the table, netting £318bn for the month, followed by Equity Sector Financials—which are on something of a roll in performance terms, leading industry sector returns for the month—at £1.26bn. It was also a good month for industrials in performance terms, which translated into inflows of £238m.
Largest Outflows
Chart 4: Ten Largest Outflows by Lipper Global Classification, November 2024 (£bn)
Source: LSEG Lipper
Chinese equities continued to struggle, as the initial promise of the Chinese government’s support for its share market once again stuttered, and market participants mulled over the impact of ratcheting tariffs between the world’s two largest economies in the wake of the US election outcome. This was reflected in flows, as investors pulled £525m from Equity China ETFs, exceeding the £168m redemptions from the classification year on year.
With Basic Materials and Healthcare lagging more than other sectors over the materials, it’s little surprise to see investors reduce their positive bets on the latter by £505m—though the quanta may perhaps raise an eyebrow.
Bond Emerging Markets Global HC saw redemptions of £503m, possibly in the face of dollar strength; however, its local currency sibling didn’t fare much better, with outflows of £280m. UK equity assets continue to languish with redemptions of £402m.
Sustainable ETFs
Chart 5: Sustainable ETF Sales (LHS, £m) and Estimated Net Flows (RHS, £bn), November 2024
Source: LSEG Lipper
Total sustainable flows were below October’s £1.8bn, attracting £1.5bn. Sustainable equity ETFs netted £1.85bn, while their fixed income peers suffered outflows of £352m, down on the previous month’s £410m inflows.
Some £182.73bn of ETF assets on the London Stock Exchange are defined by Lipper Research as sustainable, up from October’s £174.84bn held across 426 vehicles (see definition below). The bulk (84.4%) are equity, with 15.6% in bond vehicles.
As can be seen from the table below, top-selling sustainable fund classifications reflect “conventional” flows, with the top-selling funds being Equity US and Global, and—as is the pattern of conventional funds this month—Equity US Small & Mid Cap moving up the rankings.
Source: LSEG Lipper
The Sustainable section has a narrower and stricter focus than those which indicate some form of ESG strategy in their fund documentation—to a smaller group of sustainable funds, defined as all SFDR article 9 funds plus all Lipper Responsible Investment Attribute funds reduced to those containing indicative sustainable keywords in the fund name.
Trading Volumes
Chart 6: ETF Turnover (GBP bn) and as a % of Total London Stock Exchange Order Book Turnover
Source: LSEG
Trading continued to head up from September’s lull, topping October’s previous peak of £14.14bn, with volumes now hitting £14.14bn. The average traded value for ETFs as a percentage of all trades in November on the London Stock Exchange was 15.35%, in line with October. The trend over the past year is upwards in both relative and absolute terms.
Top Traded ETFs on London Stock Exchange in November 2024
Source: LSEG
The table above reflects the dominant flows to Equity US (six out of the top 10) in a way we’ve not seen in previous reports. It’s also instructive that all of the funds are cap-weighted large-cap passives, indicating that investors are going all-in on the US, without any of the equal-weighted caveats about mega-cap valuations that we have seen in previous months.
Active ETFs
Chart 7: Active and Passive, Total Net Assets (LHS, %), and Estimated Net Flows (RHS, £bn), November 2024
Source: LSEG Lipper
There are 90 active and 1,749 passive ETFs listed on the LSE. Active ETFs total net assets were 1.97% of the total, or £26.07bn, up from September’s £24.21bn. Active ETFs saw inflows of £879m, down from October’s £1.1bn.
Flows were dominated by JP Morgan, which took £759m (see table below). Invesco had the second-largest sustainable flows, at £54m.
Meanwhile, passive ETFs attracted £20.56bn.
Table: Five Best-selling Active ETFs, November 2024 (£m)
Source: LSEG Lipper
New Listings
Chart 8: New listings on the London Stock Exchange since 2004
Source: LSEG
There have been 183 launches year to date, with 10 launched in November—three equity, six bond, and one mixed assets (see table on next page). The majority of bond launches were from iShares, with a number of Target Maturity products. The MA launch is interesting, The WisdomTree Global Efficient Core UCITS ETF tracks an index with target weights of 90%, 60%, and 10% notional exposure on equity components, bond components, and cash components, respectively, thus aiming to deliver a leveraged position to the traditional 60/40 portfolio.
New Launches, November 2024
Source: LSEG Lipper
Flows by Promoter
Chart 9: 10 Best-Selling ETF Promoter for ETFs Listed on LSE, November 2024 (£bn)
Source: LSEG Lipper
There are 30 promoters with ETFs on the LSE. Seven had flows of more than £1bn over November, two more than in October, with the largest being BlackRock (£6.75bn, more than double the previous month). BlackRock netted £8.07bn in equity but suffered £1.58bn of bond redemptions, while the bulk of second-placed DWS’ £3.69bn went to equity ETFs.
Eight providers suffered outflows, down from October’s 11.
[1] This report covers all assets under management and estimated net flows for ETFs listed on the London Stock Exchange. This means while turnover and trading volume are measures that are taken per exchange, flows, and assets under management can only be calculated on a pan-European basis, since most ETFs in this report are cross-listed on various exchanges.
