ETF Securities’ physically-backed gold exchange-traded commodities saw a 236,220 ounce increase in gold holdings last week, the largest increase since the week ending 30 January.
Total gold holdings now stand at 7,322,420 ounces, a new record high, equivalent to USD6.8bn at the current gold price, the largest ETF/ETC gold holdings in Europe and the second largest in the world.
ETFS Physical Gold, Gold Bullion Securities and ETFS Physical Gold have seen over USD1.6bn of inflows since November 2008.
ETFS Physical Platinum (added 45,756 ounces (USD62m) of platinum holdings last week, the largest weekly increase since February 2008. The platinum holdings of ETFS Physical Platinum have increased 115 per cent since hitting a low on 21 November 2008. Total platinum holdings now stand at 290,095 ounces, equivalent to USD334m. ETFS Physical Platinum has returned 26 per cent so far this year.
ETFS Physical Silver also saw a surge of interest last week with a 951,049 ounce increase in holdings, the largest rise since September 2008 bringing total holdings to USD205m.
With oil prices having increased sharply over the past few weeks, it appears that some investors are taking profit with USD36m flowing out of ETFS Crude Oil and ETFS Brent last week. At the same time, ETFS Leveraged Oil and ETFS WTI saw inflows last week, indicating some investors believe the oil price rally has further to go.
ETFS Leveraged Oil saw USD14m of inflows, the largest weekly inflow in five weeks. Since 21 November, ETFS Leveraged Oil has seen USD144m of inflows, more than any other leveraged ETC. Trading volume year-to-date is USD601mn, making it the fourth most traded ETC in Europe. In February it was the third most traded ETF/ETC on the London Stock Exchange.
Investor interest in industrial metals also picked up last week with USD20m going into the sector. ETFS Industrial Metals saw the largest flows (USD10m), indicating many investors want broad access to the sector following better than expected global manufacturing data. ETFS Copper received the most flows of any single industrial metal ETC, with USD5m of flows. It is up 29 per cent year-to-date, the best performing classic ETC.
