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Assets in the investment vehicles touched another high of £540bn ($891bn) at the end of August, figures from Barclays revealed.

This figure tops the previous all-time record of £519bn ($858bn) reached in July this year.

It comes after a 25.3 per cent rise in the assets year-to-date, which has outstripped the 18 per cent increase recorded in the MSCI World Index in US dollar terms.

Deborah Fuhr, global head of ETF research and implementation for Barclays Global Investors, said: "The net inflows of £30bn ($49bn) in the last six months show demand for ETFs is still growing as clients view ETFs as useful tools to help them implement many types of exposures."

By the end of August, the global ETF industry had 1773 ETFs with 3137 listings.

Barclays said the European exchange-traded fund market was also booming, with assets hitting a record £116bn ($192.1bn) at the end of last month.

That is 5.3 per cent above the £110bn ($182.5bn) high set in July this year, Barclays said. There are currently 751 ETFs in the European market from 33 providers.

Jason Butler partner at London-based Bloomsbury Financial Planning, said ETFs had been created for speculators.

Longer-term investors have been attracted by their low costs but Butler pointed out: "Unless you are buying some obscure ETF market there is actually normally cheaper Oeics."

He said ETFs did have a part to play in a retail investment portfolio, when it was not possible to get exposure to a market through an Oeic or if the equivalent retail Oeic was more expensive.