The volume of gold held by gold-backed ETFs has taken a drop, based on February data released by the World Gold Council as part of a report on its website.
In February, the volume of gold collectively held by the gold-backed ETFs decreased by 5.1 tons (an outflow of $143.2 million) to 2,393.4 tons of gold collectively, as of Feb. 28. The total value of assets under management (AUM) was approximately $101.4 billion, a 0.1% decline from January 31.
The graphic below shows the distribution of the total value of gold assets under the management by the exchange traded funds.
The World Gold Council said that “flows were negative as the price of gold decreased and its volatility increased. This was reflected by higher trading volumes globally in ETFs and futures.”
From January to February, the price of gold decreased by $28 per ounce or 2.1% to $1,317 per troy ounce/
Let’s have a look at each gold-backed exchange traded fund that is sorted by geographical region:
The European gold exchange traded funds reported a loss of 7.3 tons of gold or an outflow of $237.1 million. The gold assets under the European funds’ management decreased by almost 60 basis points in February 2018 from the previous month.
The holding of the North American gold-backed ETFs shrank 5.1 tons of gold for a $196.2 million worth outflow. The total value of the gold assets under the management of the North American funds decreased by 0.4%.
The Asian gold-backed ETFs piled up 7.9 tons, which equalled an inflow of $318.1 million. The total value of AUM increased by 8.3%.
Other gold exchange traded funds reported a total loss of 0.7 tons of gold or an outflow of $27.9 million. The total value of gold assets under the management of other gold-backed ETFs declined by 1.6%.
The list below highlights the top three individual fund inflows:
- The Bosera Gold Exchange Traded Open-End Fund ETF (China) accumulated 7.4 tons of gold for a value of $317 million (inflow). In February 2018 the AUM increased by 207% from the prior month.
- The Xtrackers Physical Gold ETC EUR (Germany) piled up 6.8 tons of gold for an inflow of $290 million. The AUM increased by 41%.
- The iShares Gold Trust (U.S.A.) amassed 4.7 tons of gold, which equalled $205 million worth inflow. In Feb. 2018, the AUM grew 1.8% from the previous month.
The list below highlights the top three individual fund outflows:
- The SPDR Gold Shares (U.S.A.) lost 10.3 tons of gold for an outflow of $424.8 million. In Feb. 2018, the total gold assets under the management of the U.S. ETF declined by 1.2% from the previous trading month.
- The Gold Bullion Securities Ltd (United Kingdom) shrunk 8.1 tons of gold for an outflow of $344.2 million. The total AUM of the U.K. fund went down 8.6%.
- The ETFS EUR Daily Hedged Physical Gold (Italy) lost 2.2 tons of gold for an outflow of $93.9 million. While the total gold assets under the management of the Italian gold-backed ETF decreased by 32.3%.
Year to date, two consecutive months of net outflows in the European gold-backed ETFs were completely offset by increases of 10.3 and 1.4% in the value of total gold assets under management of the Asian and the North American-listed funds.
With a year to date growth of 9.6% in the total value of AUM, the U.S. iShares Gold Trust contributed 47% to the net inflows, which were globally reported by the individual funds through February 2018.
While the U.K. Gold Bullion Securities Ltd covered approximately 37.2% of the global outflow that was reported by the individual gold-backed ETFs through the second month of 2018.
(Disclosure: I have no positions in any security mentioned in this article.)
