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European ETP assets stood at $3.6tn at the end of April, up 9% on the month and 10% year-to-date. Net flows of $45.8bn ran $33.7bn ahead of March, moving demand back towards the pace set earlier in the year. Trading volumes eased from the March highs, which suggests the rebound was led by genuine demand rather than volatility-driven turnover.
The AI trade reversed the Q1 move away from US equities
The clearest shift was regional. Through much of Q1, investors diversified away from US equities on concerns about AI financing, elevated valuations and geopolitical risk, favouring global and Europe-focused exposures. April reversed part of that. As US mega-cap technology and global semiconductor names came back into focus, US-focused ETPs gathered $6.8bn, while Europe-focused products saw $2.4bn of outflows, held back by the region’s lighter AI exposure and greater sensitivity to energy prices. Global strategies stayed the largest single destination at $12.8bn, with MSCI ACWI and FTSE All-World trackers drawing the strongest inflows.
The recovery was broad
Beyond equities, the rebound reached areas that had struggled in Q1. Information Technology and AI themes regained momentum after a soft March. Energy ETPs recorded their first monthly outflows of 2026, and defence inflows slowed. Government bonds attracted renewed interest, including roughly $2.7bn into European bond exposures, and gold turned precious metals positive after a negative first quarter.
For anyone reading flows as a positioning signal, April is the month the AI trade stopped being a reason to avoid US equities and became a reason to return to them. The full April 2026 European ETP Market Landscape, prepared by Davide Guberti, Head of Data Analytics, sets out the regional and segment-level breakdowns using ETFBOOK’s daily flow and AUM data across the European ETP universe.
