03:15 PM EST, 01/13/2025 (MT Newswires) -- An exchange-traded fund (ETF) expert says the record inflows seen by Canadian ETFs last year was broad based across asset classes and markets, indicating their growing popularity among retail investors -- a trend she says is likely to continue, BNN Bloomberg is reporting Monday.

"We had $76 billion going into Canadian ETFs in 2024 and what's amazing about 2024 is that the inflows really came from all corners of the market," Tiffany Zhang, VP of ETFs and financial products research at National Bank Financial, told BNN Bloomberg in a Monday interview.

Zhang said ETF fund flows last year spanned virtually "all major asset classes," including equity, fixed income, multi-asset, and commodities, while the only funds that saw outflows in 2024 were cryptocurrency ETFs.

This led to around 50% of Canadian ETF providers having their best ever year in terms of inflows in 2024, Zhang noted, adding that equity ETFs were the most popular among investors, particularly ones tied to U.S. markets.

"With equity, that was about 60% of all of the ETF inflow last year, and the U.S. took about 50% of all of the equity inflow," she said. "Investors were so enamoured with U.S. equities last year that now the largest ETF in Canada became a Vanguard S&P 500 Index tracking ETF."

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