iShares' IVV Now Second-Biggest ETF

The S&P 500-focused ETF rises to the No. 2 spot in March.

The iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV | A-98) is now the second-biggest ETF in the market in terms of assets, thanks to net inflows of more than $4.25 billion in the month of March. The net new assets were just enough to push the fund up to the second spot in a lineup that’s led by the $157 billion SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY | A-98).

IVV ended the month with $54.36 billion in total assets, pushing the iShares MSCI EAFE ETF (EFA | A-91) into the third slot. EFA bled a net of $274 billion last month, according to our data.

IVV was part of the iShares “Core” initiative back in October 2012, when it had its expense ratio lowered from 0.09 to 0.07 percent, or $7 per $10,000 invested.

The “Core” initiative, which involved the launch of four new funds and the repackaging of six existing funds, all in low- or lower-cost wrappers, was an effort to revitalize iShares’ ETF lineup amid an increasingly competitive landscape. It seems the plan has so far worked, and IVV has emerged as one of the most popular ETFs in that grouping.

As recently as last summer, IVV was the fourth-largest ETF in the market, but the fund has gone on to gather more than $10.25 billion in net new assets since iShares unveiled “Core.” That asset-gathering pace has come as the fund raced higher—in the past 12 months, IVV has rallied nearly 23 percent.

The fund is one of only three market-cap-weighted ETFs to focus exclusively on the S&P 500, and it competitively sits right in the middle when it comes to fees. SPY charges 0.09 percent and the Vanguard S&P 500 Fund (VOO | A-96) costs 0.05 percent.

In March, VOO gathered a net of $538 million in assets, while SPY bled $1.6 billion—flows that came as the S&P 500 tacked on 0.7 percent in gains that month.

Gold ETF Also Rises Another Step

Another fund to move up a ranking in March was the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD | A-100), following net inflows of $420 million last month. At $33.75 billion in total assets, the fund remains a far cry from the $75 billion it commanded at the beginning of 2013, but it’s now bigger than the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM | B-100).

EEM attracted a net of $91 million in March, but the fund has been on an asset-losing streak that has already shaved more than $7.48 billion from its total assets year-to-date. EEM had $31.88 billion in total assets at the end of March, making it the 8^th-biggest U.S.-listed ETF.

Year-to-date, GLD has rallied more than 6 percent, while EEM has slid nearly 1 percent in the same time period.

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