AGL 38.30 Increased By ▲ 0.08 (0.21%)
AIRLINK 132.30 Increased By ▲ 3.33 (2.58%)
BOP 8.66 Increased By ▲ 0.81 (10.32%)
CNERGY 4.73 Increased By ▲ 0.07 (1.5%)
DCL 8.50 Increased By ▲ 0.18 (2.16%)
DFML 38.50 Decreased By ▼ -0.44 (-1.13%)
DGKC 84.30 Increased By ▲ 2.36 (2.88%)
FCCL 34.52 Increased By ▲ 1.10 (3.29%)
FFBL 76.55 Increased By ▲ 0.84 (1.11%)
FFL 12.79 Decreased By ▼ -0.03 (-0.23%)
HUBC 109.98 Decreased By ▼ -0.38 (-0.34%)
HUMNL 14.35 Increased By ▲ 0.34 (2.43%)
KEL 5.37 Increased By ▲ 0.22 (4.27%)
KOSM 7.78 Increased By ▲ 0.11 (1.43%)
MLCF 40.60 Increased By ▲ 0.80 (2.01%)
NBP 70.00 Decreased By ▼ -2.32 (-3.21%)
OGDC 190.60 Increased By ▲ 2.31 (1.23%)
PAEL 25.95 Increased By ▲ 0.32 (1.25%)
PIBTL 7.45 Increased By ▲ 0.08 (1.09%)
PPL 156.09 Increased By ▲ 3.42 (2.24%)
PRL 25.80 Increased By ▲ 0.41 (1.61%)
PTC 18.70 Increased By ▲ 1.00 (5.65%)
SEARL 82.79 Increased By ▲ 0.37 (0.45%)
TELE 7.80 Increased By ▲ 0.21 (2.77%)
TOMCL 32.83 Increased By ▲ 0.26 (0.8%)
TPLP 8.36 Decreased By ▼ -0.06 (-0.71%)
TREET 17.10 Increased By ▲ 0.32 (1.91%)
TRG 56.05 Increased By ▲ 0.01 (0.02%)
UNITY 28.83 Increased By ▲ 0.05 (0.17%)
WTL 1.34 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.74%)
BR100 10,707 Increased By 48.2 (0.45%)
BR30 31,703 Increased By 372 (1.19%)
KSE100 99,661 Increased By 391.4 (0.39%)
KSE30 31,066 Increased By 34.1 (0.11%)

The boom in exchange-traded funds is leaving so-called sustainable investing behind. There are just 48 exchange-traded funds that invest based on environmental, social and governance factors, which are collectively known as ESG, according to data from research firm Morningstar.
Those funds hold a total of $5.7 billion in assets - roughly a third of the $15.4 billion invested in the Parnassus Core Equity fund, the largest actively-managed, ESG-focused mutual fund. The relatively small total of assets invested in sustainable ETFs comes at a time when ETFs overall are rapidly expanding. Investors pulled $264.5 billion out of US actively-managed equity mutual funds in 2016, while pumping a record $282 billion into exchange-traded funds, according to data from Morningstar and FactSet.
"I do think that ESG will be a growth industry for fund providers eventually, but it will take time for assets to move into these products," said Todd Rosenbluth, director of fund research at New York-based CFRA. "Investors in ESG products tend to be more patient and care less about performance than investors in traditionally-managed products, so there might not be the same push to pull assets when a product has underperformed."
ESG-focused funds have been one of the few bright spots for the actively-managed fund industry at a time when lower-cost ETFs and passive index funds are drawing assets, in large part since sustainable strategies often require more research and stock selection that is not easily replicated in an index. BlackRock Inc, the largest ETF issuer through its iShares brand, has been expanding its number of ESG funds. The firm launched two ESG-focused bond ETFs last month, increasing its lineup of ESG funds to 10 overall.

Comments

Comments are closed.