October saw major surges in the trading volumes of exchange traded funds and the creation of new units, according to Lyxor Asset Management, a wholly-owned subsidiary of France's Société Générale.

In October, Lyxor ETF total volumes were EUR16.094bn.

Lyxor saw trading volumes reaching EUR11.063bn and gross creations, a key indicator of ETF market activity on the over the counter market, totalling EUR5.031bn.

Net creations, or sales, were EUR1.732bn.

The majority of new assets were investd in the major pan-European regional and single country equity benchmarks.

Lyxor says its market share increased to 26 per cent at the end of October with EUR24bn in assets.

It says hedge fund interest increased for its European sector ETFs.

More generally, investors have been increasingly selecting index-tracking investments because the correlation between asset classes and their overall volatility are at high levels, making stock-picking extremely difficult.