July was another top month for the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO). The flagship ASX 200 managed to add a sizeable 1.1% over the month just gone. The popular ASX exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that track the ASX 200 would have naturally given investors similar gains.
But not all ETFs are equal. Some performed worse than this, while others performed better. ETF provider BetaShares has just released its Australian ETF Review for the month of July, and it makes for some interesting reading.
We already covered how ASX ETFs saw record inflows of funds over July yesterday. We also looked at the ETFs that experienced the largest single inflow of funds (looking at you Vanguard MSCI Index International Shares ETF (ASX: VGS)).
So today, let's check out the ASX ETFs that performed the best over July.
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The top ASX ETFs in July 2021
BetaShares names the top-performing ASX ETFs for July as follows:
- VanEck Global Healthcare Leaders ETF (ASX: HLTH)
- BetaShares Global Cybersecurity ETF (ASX: HACK)
- BetaShares Australian Resources Sector ETF (ASX: QRE)
- SPDR S&P/ASX 200 Resources Fund (ASX: OZR)
- SPDR Dow Jones Global Real Estate Fund (ASX: DJRE)
VanEck's HLTH global healthcare ETF was the top performer, delivering gains of 8.5% for July.
HACK was next up with 7%, while the remaining ETFs all delivered between 6.5% and 6.7% for the month.
So we can definitely see that sector/thematic ETFs were big winners in July. Particularly those covering the healthcare, cybersecurity and mining sectors.
So let's dig a little deeper.
VanEck's HLTH fund has 49 holdings. The top holdings it offers are currently West Pharmaceutical Services Inc (NYSE: WST), ResMed Inc (NYSE: RMD) (which ASX investors might recognise), PerkinElmer Inc (NYSE: PKI) and Waters Corporation (NYSE: WAT). These are all big US healthcare companies, which (as you might imagine) had a ripper of a month in July.
HACK invests in a basket of global cybersecurity shares, again mostly in the US. Some of its current top holdings include Zscaler Inc (NASDAQ: ZS), Crowdstrike Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: CRWD) and Okta Inc (NASDAQ: OKTA). Again, most of these companies experienced a great July, hence the overall ETF's stellar performance.
Most ASX investors would be familiar with the recent success of ASX resources shares such as BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP), Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO) and Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX: PLS). So it's no surprise to find these companies well established in all of the ASX resources sector ETFs listed above.
These numbers go to show that all ASX sectors have their time in the sun. Who knows what August's numbers will give us!
