Which ETF sectors are attracting the most investment?

While equity markets stuttered in July – the MSCI World Index, which represents 85% of the total market capitalisation of each developed market in the world, grew just 0.5% during the month – flows into exchange-traded products were strong.

European-listed exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and exchange-traded commodities (ETCs) attracted flows of €47.3 billion in July, up 28.5% from €36.8 billion the previous month, according to data from investment research firm Morningstar.

Fund flows can give a broad indication of how investors feel about the market at a given point of time, though there is of course no guarantee that this will continue in future.

Among European-listed ETFs, those focusing on equity investing attracted €34.2 billion in flows during July, up from €29.9 billion in June. ETFs tracking bonds attracted €8.8 billion in July, up from €7.7 billion in June.

“Despite a softer month for US equities, money continued to flow into both global and US-focused equity [ETFs], reflecting investor conviction in the long-term artificial intelligence and technology-led growth story,” said Jose Garcia-Zarate, senior principal at Morningstar. “Investors largely treated market weakness as a buying opportunity, continuing to allocate capital to growth-oriented exposures.”

While ETF flows remained strong in aggregate, there was some divergence between the allocations towards different styles of fund.

The Europe-listed ETF sectors that saw the biggest inflows and outflows

Blend equity ETFs (those holding a combination of value and growth stocks) saw some of the largest inflows among Europe-listed equity ETFs during July, according to Morningstar’s analysis.

Global large cap blend equity ETFs attracted €10.1 billion in flows during the month, followed by US large cap blend equity at €8.6 billion.

While ETFs that contained a blend of US large- and small-caps saw the largest flows, their counterparts that focused on either growth or value saw divergent flows. ETFs targeting US large cap growth stocks were among those that saw the largest outflows (€1.4 billion worth), but US large cap value ETFs saw outflows of €117 million.

^{Source: Morningstar Direct. Data as of 31 July 2026.}

“Interestingly, we saw little evidence of a meaningful rotation into defensive or value strategies during the pullback,” said Garcia-Zarate.

The ETF sectors that saw the largest outflows were global large cap value, which saw outflows of €539 million, and Europe ex-UK with €442 million in outflows.

Which Europe-listed ETFs saw the largest flows during July?

Vanguard’s FTSE All-World UCITS ETF (LON:VWRP) topped the list of ETFs seeing the largest inflows during July, with €3.3 billion flowing into the fund. iShares MSCI Japan ETF (LON:IJPN) came second, with €1.6 billion inflows.

State Street SPDR MSCI World ETF (LON:SWLD) saw the largest outflows, at €1.9 billion, followed by Xtrackers S&P 500 Swap ETF (LON:XSXG) which registered €981 million outflows.

^{Source: Morningstar Direct. Data as of 31 July 2026.}

What happened to global ETP flows in July?

The data on flows into European-listed ETFs and ETCs was consistent with the picture that global ETP flows painted.

Global flows into exchange-traded products (ETPs) – which includes ETFs and ETCs – hit a record $362.6 billion in July, according to data from asset manager BlackRock.

BlackRock’s analysis showed that flows into equity ETPs rose for the third consecutive month to $64.8 billion.

Flows into tech ETPs reached a record $60.5 billion in July, smashing through the previous record of $32.0 billion, set the previous month.