Selftrade's ETF Select 100: Who Were The Winners In November?

The db x-trackers JPX-Nikkei 400 UCITS ETF was the second best performing ETF for the month, returning 7.7%, while the db x-trackers MSCI Japan Index UCITS ETF and the db x-trackers Japan Nikkei 225 UCITS ETF were also in the top five, climbing 7.5% and 5.5% respectively.

Japanese stocks jumped after Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) won a landslide victory in the recent election. This prompted the Nikkei 225 to rise 5% to 22,902 points, reaching levels not seen since the mid-1990s.

Simon Glover, chairman of the ITI Group, said: "Early November saw a brief wobble in stock market confidence, but then the upward trend resumed and new highs were once again recorded by the world's major stock indices.

"Technology and Japanese equities were the star performers amongst the ETF Select 100, as they had been in October.

"ETFs once again saw net new asset inflows and it is estimated that total worldwide ETF assets rose above $4trn for the first time during the month.

"Amongst the ETFs included in the ETF Select 100, Japan equity ETFs were the big winners in terms of asset flows and performance, as were US tech sector ETFs."

Commenting on ETF flows on Selftrade's platform, Mark Taylor, chief customer officer for Selftrade from Equiniti, said there were some strong inflows into the UK market, particularly into dividend products as a result of the weaker outlook for interest rate hikes. 

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said it is likely there would only be two more rate hikes over the next three years, after the bank raised rates for the first time in a decade from 0.25% to 0.5% in November.

Taylor said: "Of particular note are investors looking for dividend income as the outlook for UK interest rates looks unexciting, despite the recent move by the Bank of England. 

"This is happening against a backdrop of a number of UK companies maintaining their dividend, and in some cases increasing it.

"We continue to see good inflows into Japan and emerging markets, as well as some profit taking in the European space."

Is this the start of a fright flight? The ETFs topping the performance and flows charts in October

Glover added: "Overall, ETFs offering worldwide equity exposure received the most money - perhaps a sign of general confidence in world economic growth prospects and the difficulty of picking geographic or country winners.

"The only possible fly in this rosy ointment is the continuing flattening of the US bond yield curve, now as flat as it has been in ten years.

"This is of concern, as a flat or inverted yield curve (the difference between short term and long dated interest rates) has accurately been a precursor or predictor of the last seven recessions."