Investors poured into oil focussed equities during the month of March. 

Meanwhile, bear focussed ASX ETFs also outperformed. 

"Bear-focused" ETFs are designed to profit when markets fall (or to hedge against downturns).

March overview

The Betashares Australian ETF review revealed that in a month dominated by the outbreak of conflict in Iran, the Australian ETF industry recorded very strong net inflows of $5.6 billion. 

Despite this, market movements pushed funds under management down by $13.8 billion to $329.4 billion.

According to Tom Wickenden, Investment Strategist, the short-term threat from the Iran war is the oil price spike's impact on growth and inflation. 

But the longer-term implications may matter most for investors, long after any resolution. 

Russia's invasion of Ukraine accelerated defence spending and European energy diversification. The Iran conflict is now doing the same for global energy self sufficiency, while fracturing the US security umbrella and embedding geopolitics as a structural driver of asset prices rather than an episodic risk to be faded.

Mr Wickenden explained that as a response, investor flows have picked up in select hedges: 

• Energy producers
• Uranium
• Defence
• Critical minerals
• Agricultural commodities.

March also saw a second-rate hike from the RBA in 2026.

For Australian equities this reinforces three key trends: the rotation toward income and value factors, pressure on rate sensitive sectors, and the same commodity shock that has complicated the RBA's path is generating meaningful earnings improvements for Australian energy and material companies.

Best performing ASX ETFs in March

According to Betashares, March's top performers were dominated by defensive and counter-cyclical exposures. 

This came as a sharp rally in crude oil lifted commodity focused funds while equity bear funds surged on the back of significant market volatility and risk-off sentiment. 

The best performing ASX ETFs in March were: 

• BetaShares Crude Oil Index ETF – Currency Hedged (Synthetic) (ASX: OOO) rose 55.9%
• BetaShares Australian Equities Strong Bear Hedge Fund (ASX: BBOZ) rose 19.33%
• Betashares Ethereum ETF (ASX: QETH) rose 13.33%
• Betashares US Equities Strong Bear Currency Hedged Complex ETF (ASX: BBUS) rose 12.3%
• Global X Ultra Short Nasdaq 100 Hedge Fund (ASX: SNAS) rose 11.94%.

The Betashares Crude Oil Index ETF led the way in March. 

The fund aims to track the performance of an index (before fees and expenses) that provides exposure to crude oil futures, hedged for currency movements in the AUD/USD exchange rate.

It benefited as oil prices surged following the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz.

The post What were the best performing Betashares ASX ETFs in March? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Today is a rare bright spot for tech shares after a prolonged rout that has devastated the sector.

The S&P/ASX 200 Information Technology Index (ASX: XIJ) has fallen by more than 40% over the past six months.

By comparison, US tech stocks are still travelling reasonably well, although some big players have seen dramatic recent drops.

The NASDAQ-100 Index (NASDAQ: NDX) is up 6.5% over the past six months, but down 1.4% in the year-to-date (YTD).

Among the index constituents recently smashed are Aussie investor favourite Palantir Technologies Inc. shares, down 24% YTD.

Let's dig deeper.

What's driving the tech share downturn?

Investors are worried about how the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution will impact various industries and businesses.

Firstly, there's concern about US tech stock valuations after strong earnings growth pushed them higher last year.

Investors are also worried about AI capex commitments.

State Street Investment reports that the Mag 7 is expected to spend up to US$520 billion this year, up 30% from 2025.

The Mag Seven stocks all rose in 2025, but all of them have fallen YTD.

The worst performers are Microsoft Corporation shares, down 17%, and Amazon.com Inc., down 11%.

ASX ETF Global X Fang+ ETF (ASX: FANG), which includes the Mag 7 plus three others, is down 14% YTD.

A recent new concern is whether AI will simply wipe out software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies.

If agentic AI and generative tools can custom-write software, what does that mean for proprietary SaaS products?

We saw this fear play out in early February after Anthropic released a legal software plug-in for its Claude AI model on 30 January.

Since then, the share price of Thomson Reuters Corp, owner of Westlaw and legal research tools, has fallen 24%.

Other NASDAQ 100 SaaS companies have also taken a dive.

Atlassian Corporation Plc shares are down 31%, Workday Inc. stock is down 18%, and Adobe Inc. shares are down 10%.

ASX SaaS shares that have taken a beating over this period include accounting services provider Xero Ltd (ASX: XRO).

The Xero share price has fallen 15% since 30 January and is down 57% over the past 12 months.

Shares in enterprise software provider TechnologyOne Ltd (ASX: TNE) have dipped 4% since 30 January and 22% over the year.

Is there any way to leverage the tech rout for gains?

According to Tony Locantro from Alto Capital, there sure is.

This month, Locantro put a buy rating on Global X Ultra Short Nasdaq 100 Complex ETF (ASX: SNAS).

This ASX ETF allows investors to profit from the tech share rout, but Locantro warns it is best used as a short-term play.

He explains why (courtesy The Bull):

SNAS provides leveraged inverse exposure to the Nasdaq-100, typically rising by about 2 per cent to 2.75 per cent for every 1 per cent fall in the index on a daily basis.

With US technology valuations recently elevated and market leadership increasingly narrow, this ETF offers a tactical hedge against short term weakness in growth equities.

Locantro says the SNAS ETF is designed for short-term positioning and can be affected by compounding if held for extended periods.

However, during heightened volatility or sharp corrections, Locantro says downside moves in the Nasdaq "can translate into meaningful gains".

The post ASX ETF to buy now amid global tech share downturn appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

According to the ETF Market Scoop report, the Australian ETF market is off to a record-breaking start in 2025, with YTD net flows reaching $27.2 billion, an 89% increase compared to the same period last year.

Additionally, July 2025 marked a historic milestone for the ETF industry, setting a new record for monthly inflows with over $5.9 billion in net flows, surpassing the previous high of $4.8 billion set in January this year. 

The Australian ETF market has grown 34.1% over the past year, and is running at a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 34.0% p.a.

ETF short term winners

The Global X report also identified best performers during July. 

Ethereum was the best-performing ETF category in July 2025, rising over 57% for the month. The rally was supported by renewed investor confidence following the passage of the GENIUS Act in the US, which provided long-awaited regulatory clarity around stablecoins and digital asset infrastructure.

Broad-based global share ETFs were the clear standout by a wide margin, attracting around $885 million in net flows. 

The report also highlighted the funds with the best year to date returns as at July 31. These included: 

• Global X Defence Tech ETF (ASX: DTEC) lifted 58.2% 
• Vaneck Global Defence ETF (ASX: DFND) rose 54%
• BetaShares Global Gold Miners ETF – Currency Hedged (ASX: MNRS) grew 50.1%

Unsurprisingly, gold and defence focussed funds led the way. 

Investors poured into these sectors this calendar year amidst global conflict and commodity price surges.

ETF short term losers

According to the report, in July, the Australian resources sector ETFs experienced notable outflows, recording $52 million in net outflows, marking the fourth-worst month historically for the category. 

Financials also faced pressure, seeing $22 million in net outflows. 

These trends may reflect investor caution ahead of the upcoming Australian reporting season, coupled with ongoing uncertainty around the materials sector's recovery prospects. Additionally, Australian banks trading at a premium valuation may have contributed to the cautious sentiment, prompting some investors to reduce exposure in the sector amid a broader backdrop of market volatility and macroeconomic concerns.

Yearly winners and losers

Zooming out a little further, the report also identified the funds that rose and fell the most over the past 12 months to July 31. 

These included: 

• Betashares Video Games and Esports ETF (ASX: GAME) rose 80.7% 
• Vaneck Bitcoin Etf (ASX: VBTC) gained 80.1%
  
  

The funds that fell the most over the past 12 months to July 31 included: 

• Etfs Ultra Short Nasdaq 100 Hedge Fund (ASX: SNAS) fell 35.1%. 
• BetaShares Australian Equities Strong Bear Hedge Fund (ASX: BBOZ) fell 16.9%. 

The post A record breaking month for ASX ETFs in July appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

But that doesn't mean all ASX ETFs had a rough year. So let's check out the three best-performing ETFs from last year. Just to be clear, we'll go off the change in unit prices alone over the year here.

The top 3 ASX ETFs of 2022 revealed

BetaShares U.S. Equities Strong Bear Fund (ASX: BBUS)

First up is this inverse ETF from BetaSahres. Inverse ETFs are designed to rise in value when the value of the index they track falls. In the Strong Bear Fund's case, the returns are also leveraged. This means that a 1% fall in the US market will generally give this ETF a boost of between 2% and 2.75%.

The US markets had an even worse year than the ASX 200 in 2022, with the S&P 500 Index (SP: .INX) falling by more than 19%. So it's perhaps no surprise that this ETF had a cracking year.

Strong Bear Fund units started 2022 at $8.22, but finished up at $10.82, meaning investors enjoyed a total capital gain of 31.63% for the year.

BetaShares Global Energy Companies ETF (ASX: FUEL)

Another fund from BetaShares, this one is a little different. The Global Energy Companies ETF is not an inverse or leveraged fund. It simply tracks a basket of global energy giants operating in the oil and gas industries. These include well-known names like Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP and Chevron.

2022 saw oil and gas prices skyrocket thanks to a potent mix of geopolitical and economic challenges. This resulted in a very pleasing year for these kinds of companies.

We can see this reflected in the Global Energy Companies ETF's unit price. This ETF started last year at a price of $4.69 but finished up at $6.46. That's a gain worth 37.74%.

Global X Ultra Short Nasdaq 100 Hedge Fund (ASX: SNAS)

Our final and best-performing ETF of 2022 is another inverse, leveraged fund. The Global X Ultra Short Nasdaq 100 Hedge Fund is designed to move in the opposite direction to the US NASDAQ-100 Index (NASDAQ: NDX).

The Nasdaq 100 is an index that reflects 100 of the largest companies on the tech-heavy NASDAQ exchange over in the US.

The Nasdaq 100 had a horrible 2022, falling by almost 33% last year. That's a perfect storm for a cracking year for this ETF. The Ultra Short Nasdaq Fund started 2022 off at $3.04 per unit but ended the year at $5.53. That's a gain worth a stellar 81.9%.

The post Here are the 3 best-performing ASX ETFs of 2022 appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

As most investors would know, this year has been an especially tough one.

Given the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) has lost about 10.6% over the year to date, ASX 200 index funds would have suffered a similar fate. So let's take a look at which ASX ETFs have been winners for investors this year.

The 3 best-performing ASX ETFs of 2022 (thus far)

BetaShares Strong U.S. Dollar Fund (ASX: YANK)

This is a rather unique ETF in that it doesn't cover companies at all. Rather this fund has been designed to give exposure solely to the performance of the US dollar compared to the Aussie dollar. So if the US dollar rises against our own (and our dollar falls), the value of this fund is supposed to rise.

This fund also uses leverage to amplify these movements. So it's perhaps no surprise that the Strong Dollar ETF has had a cracking year.

This fund has given investors a return of 25.1% year to date, thanks to the rampant greenback that has come to dominate the currency markets this year.

BetaShares Global Energy Companies ETF (ASX: FUEL)

This ETF, as its code so aptly implies, is a fund that tracks a basket of global energy companies. Its primary holdings are the US oil giants Chevron and Exxon Mobil, but also includes Royal Dutch Shell and BP.

As motorists everywhere would be painfully aware, 2022 has seen energy prices explode. This has been detrimental for energy users, but highly lucrative for energy shares like those above. So it's perhaps no surprise that this ETF has given investors a 32% return over the year to date.

Global X Ultra Short NASDAQ 100 Hedge Fund (ASX: SNAS)

Here we have another rather special ETF. This NASDAQ Hedge Fund is another ETF that uses leverage. But it is also an inverse ETF. This means that it has been engineered to rise in value when the index it tracks falls (and vice versa). In this case, it is the US-based NASDAQ-100 (NASDAQ: NDX).

As it happens, the NASDAQ 100 has had a shocker, falling by a nasty 31.46% on yesterday's pricing. But investors of this Ultra Short ETF will find that music to their ears. That's because this fall has enabled an eye-popping 76.3% increase in the value of this fund over 2022 thus far.

The post These are 3 best-performing ASX ETFs so far in 2022 appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.