ETF Gold Holdings Rise By 197.5 Tonnes In 2017 - WGC
(Kitco News) - Gold held by globalexchange-traded funds increased by 197.5 tonnes in 2017, a gain of 8.4%, saidthe World Gold Council in its monthly report on Tuesday.
The rise last year was largelydriven by European ETFs, which represented 75% of all total inflows by adding148.6 tonnes of gold ($5.8 billion) to their holdings.
In turn, the European market wasdominated by Germany. “German-listed ETFs accounted for 35% of global netinflows in 2017,” the WGC said in its report.
Meanwhile, in the North Americanmarket, iShares Gold Trust and SPDR Gold Shares collectively accumulated 62.6tonnes in 2017, representing 28% of global net inflows.
The report added thatcurrency-hedged, gold-backed ETFs had “the strongest growth during 2017.”
The top three individual fundinflows of 2017 were Xetra-Gold with an additional 58 tonnes, iShares GoldTrust with 47.3 tonnes, and Source Physical Gold ETC with 27.2 tonnes.
Gold ETFs generally trade like astock but track the price of the commodity, with metal put into storage to backthe shares.
The year wrapped up on a goodfooting, with global gold-backed ETFs rising by 5.3 tonnes ($101 million) inDecember, which pushed the total to 2,363 tonnes, the WGC added.
The December inflows were spreadacross Europe, North America and Asia, according to the report.
Some of the December highlightsincluded Xetra-Gold in Europe adding 4.7 tonnes ($141 million), North AmericaniShares Gold Trust adding 2.1 tonnes ($88 million), China’s Huaan Yifu Gold ETFadding 0.6 tonne ($24 million), North American Source Physical Gold ETC losing3.6 tonnes ($135 million), and SPDR Gold Shares losing 2 tonnes ($67 million).
By Anna GolubovaFor Kitco News
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