April Gold ETF Inflows Highest In More Than A Year - WGC
(Kitco News)- Gold-backed exchange-traded fundssaw their most significant level of inflows last month in more than a year as gold prices rose to a two-month high, according to the latest data compiled by theWorld Gold Council.
The monthly investment data showthat global gold ETFs increased their holdings by 72.2 tonnes to 2,481 tonnesin April. This is the second straight month of inflows and follows the Marchincrease of 22.5 tonnes.
The WGC data show that North Americangold ETFs saw the biggest increase at 44 tonnes, representing 54% of totalinflows last month. Renewed investor interest in gold helped to drive the priceto a two-month high at $1,369.40 last month. However, since those recent highs, gold prices have fallen to the bottom end of their range; June gold futures last traded at $1,315.40 an ounce.
European markets, which led goldETF demand for the last two years, saw gold demand increase by more than 27 tonnes in April.
“Despite seeing little movementin assets during Q1 2018, European holdings are now comfortably up since theend of December mostly as a result of 27t of inflows in April,” the WGC said inits report.
Asian-based products saw modestinflows of 2.4 tonnes last month; however, the WGC noted that Asian basedgold-backed ETFs are down 1.4 tonnes so far this year.
Looking at individual ETFs, theworld’s largest gold-backed fund, SDPR Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD), attracted themost investors last month, with its holdings increasing by 25.1 tonnes. IsharesGold Trust (NYSE: IAU) had an inflow of 17.1 tonnes.
In Europe, gold investment demandwas led by Xtrackers Physical Gold, which saw inflows of 7.9 tonnes, InvescoPhysical Gold saw its holding increase 6.2 tonnes, Xetra-Gold reported goldinflows of 6.2 tonnes, and ETFS EUR Daily Hedged Physical Gold saw its reservesincrease 5 tonnes.
While the data shows thatinvestment demand in gold-backed ETFs started the second quarter on a strongnote, this comes on the back of a dismal first-quarter performance.
Last week, the WGC said in itsquarterly gold-demand trends report that overall global gold demand dropped toits lowest level in 10 years. The council said that lackluster investorinterest in gold-backed ETFs drove weak demand.
“ETFs saw inflows of 32 tonnes in theJanuary-March period, down 66% from last year’s first quarter,” the WGC said inits quarterly report.
By Neils ChristensenFor Kitco News
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