U.S.-listed ETF and ETN assets under management fell to $814 billion from $835 billion at the end of July, as the 4.3 percent slide in the Dow Jones industrial average last month translated in the ETF world into an exodus from equities and into bonds and gold, according to data compiled by IndexUniverse.com. U.S. ETF assets hit a high of $845 million in April.

But there was one notable exception: Emerging markets equities bucked the entire trend, with the Vanguard MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (NYSEArca: VWO) and the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index Fund (NYSEArca: EEM) topping the inflows list and ending the month with more assets than when it started.

Indeed, while the developed world appears mired in sluggish growth and possibly worse, the emerging markets are humming along. VWO gathered $1.95 billion in new money, while EEM attracted $1.81 billion in net inflows. Both funds had more assets at the end of August than the previous month, meaning that market declines weren’t enough to offset flows. VWO closed the gap on EEM by about $400,000, ending with $30.35 billion, compared with $39.77 billion for EEM.

Bond-linked products and gold also featured prominently on the gainers list, as investors sought safe havens and predictable yields in the face of a faltering U.S. economy.

The SPDR Gold Trust (NYSEArca: GLD) gathered $815.1 million, though the rising tide of markets lifted its total assets by more than $4 billion to $52.16 billion.

The ProShares UltraShort 20+ Year Treasury ETF (NYSEArca: TBT) was fifth among the gainers, gathering about $585 million in new assets, while the iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (NYSEArca: HYG) and the Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (NYSEArca: BND) were seventh and eighth, with $497 million and $468 million in new money, respectively. Even the iShares S&P Preferred Stock ETF (NYSEArca: PFF) was in the top 10, with $454 million in new assets.

Another reflection of the anxiety in markets was the $603.5 million in new assets that poured into the iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (NYSEArca: VXX), a product that enables investors to profit from rising volatility. Those new assets represented a 43 percent increase that brought the total to $1.98 billion and put VXX in the No. 4 spot on the gainers list.

Biggest Losers

The biggest losing funds in August were U.S. large-cap equities funds, including the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEArca: SPY), which topped the list with $6.63 billion in net outflows. Total assets for the world’s biggest ETF fell to $62.24 billion from $72.04 billion at the end of July.

The PowerShares QQQ ETF (NasdaqGM: QQQQ) of Nasdaq’s biggest companies suffered $2.08 billion in redemptions, and investors pulled $1.79 billion out of the small-cap iShares Russell 2000 ETF (NYSEArca: IWM).

Interestingly, the iShares Barclays TIPS Bond ETF (NYSEArca: TIP), a fund that tracks an index of inflation-protected U.S. Treasurys, had $332.8 million in redemptions, a measure of how much investor sentiment shifted away from concerns about inflation last month. TIP was tenth on the IndexUniverse.com losers list.

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