Investors started 2012 by taking on risk in emerging markets and in junk bonds, making last year’s most popular ETF, VWO, the biggest asset gatherer in the first month of the year.

Overall, U.S.-listed ETFs attracted almost $29 billion, the most since September 2010 when almost $28 billion flowed in. Total assets, including market moves, rose 8.3 percent to over $1.150 trillion., according to data compiled by IndexUniverse.

The Vanguard MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (NYSEArca: VWO) pulled in $3.25 billion in fresh assets last month, and including a powerful rebound in developing market stock prices, VWO’s total assets climbed more than 19 percent to nearly $50 billion. Its rival, the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index Fund (NYSEArca: EEM), gathered $1.28 billion, and its assets rose more than 15 percent to $37.43 billion.

The renewed appetite for risk extended to the U.S.-listed ETF market’s two-biggest junk bond funds as well. The iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond Fund (NYSEArca: HYG) and the SPDR Barclays Capital High Yield Bond ETF (NYSEArca: JNK) attracted $2.25 billion and $1.44 billion, respectively.

While a solution to Europe’s sovereign debt crisis is hardly at hand, investor behavior in January suggested an underlying optimism that 2012 won’t be as messy as 2011. That sentiment was expressed in the strong flows to emerging markets and junk bonds, which are historically considered among the riskier assets. Also, rising popularity of high-yield debt has in the past often preceded economic recovery.

From a fund sponsor perspective, VWO’s place at the pinnacle of our “Top Gainers” table didn’t translate into Valley Forge, Pa.-based Vanguard raking in more assets than any other ETF company. That honor went to BlackRock, the parent of San Francisco-based iShares, the world’s biggest ETF company.

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