European ETF investors pour €113.6bn into UCITS funds in Q2 2026 as US equities lead the rebound
9 JUL, 2026
By Joanna Piwko from RankiaPro Europe
European-domiciled UCITS ETFs attracted €113.6bn of net new assets in the second quarter of 2026, according to Amundi's latest Monthly Flows report – an increase of 80% on the same period last year and 7% ahead of the €105.8bn gathered in the first quarter.
The quarter capped a strong recovery from the volatility triggered by the conflict in the Middle East in March, with momentum building steadily through April, May and June. June alone delivered €40.5bn in net new assets, ahead of April's €36.2bn and May's €36.9bn, taking total assets under management in European UCITS ETFs to €3,093.4bn by month-end.
Equities extend their lead, but the composition shifts
Equity strategies remained the dominant force, absorbing €83.9bn in Q2 – roughly three-quarters of total inflows and nearly double the €45.1bn recorded in the second quarter of 2025. Within the asset class, however, the pattern of allocation changed markedly compared with the start of the year.
All-country world exposures gathered the most assets in the quarter at around €34.3bn, while US equities staged a sharp comeback, rising to €26bn in Q2 from just €8.2bn in Q1. European equities, by contrast, swung into net outflows over the quarter – a reversal from the €21.2bn of inflows collected in Q1 – as investors rotated toward US large caps on the back of an easing Middle East crisis and resilient corporate earnings. Emerging market flows continued but at a slower pace, spread more broadly across country and sector-level exposures.
In June specifically, US equities accounted for €12.4bn of net new assets versus continued outflows from European equity ETFs (-€1.73bn), reinforcing the quarter's broader rotation. By sector, information technology led monthly gathering with €1.7bn, followed by healthcare (€712m) and industrials (€337m), while energy (-€1.19bn) and consumer staples (-€475m) saw the largest redemptions. Thematic flows told a similar story: semiconductor ETFs took in €1.1bn in June, extending a trend that saw AI-related exposures gather €2.7bn over the full quarter, while climate change strategies posted the heaviest monthly outflow of any theme at -€1.72bn.
Fixed income rebounds, with credit and duration diverging by region
Fixed income ETFs gathered roughly €29.5bn over Q2, up from €19.5bn in Q1 and €18.3bn a year earlier, as investors took advantage of opportunistic buying after the March sell-off – particularly in government bonds. Investment-grade corporate credit stood out with a near four-fold jump in quarterly inflows to €6.9bn, from €1.8bn in Q1, as investors sought carry alongside relative safety; June alone added €2.36bn to IG credit and €2.32bn to government bonds.
Regional positioning diverged notably on duration. European government bond investors favoured all-maturity exposure (€3.2bn in Q2; €656m in June) while pulling back from ultra-short-term paper, which swung to outflows after adding €935m in Q1 and shed a further €321m in June. US government bond investors took the opposite approach, continuing to favour ultra-short duration (€1.9bn in Q2; €632m in June) amid lingering uncertainty over the Federal Reserve's rate path and US inflation. Corporate credit followed a comparable regional split, with European buyers preferring all-maturity exposure (€1.48bn in June) and US buyers concentrating in short and ultra-short maturities (€380m and €315m respectively).
ESG flows hit record levels
Sustainable ETFs had their strongest first half on record, with both Q1 and Q2 each gathering more than €21bn – a combined H1 total of almost €43bn, more than triple the equivalent period in 2025. Equities accounted for roughly two-thirds of ESG asset gathering in Q2, with fixed income contributing the remainder. In June, ESG strategies added €8.11bn overall, split between €5.5bn in ESG equities and €2.6bn in ESG fixed income – still a fraction of the €26.25bn and €5.98bn respectively gathered by non-ESG counterparts, but consistent with the year's accelerating trend.
Physical replication continued to dominate structuring choices across the European ETF market, accounting for 73.9% (€23.5bn) of June's equity flows, against 26.1% (€8.3bn) for synthetic structures.
Data source: Amundi ETF Market & Product Strategy, Money Monitor (MTD flows to 30/06/2026) and Monthly Flows – June 2026.
