The World Gold Council has published data on the gold-backed holdings of exchange-traded funds for September.
This information is important for gold investors as it gives analysts guidance for making their predictions on the future price of the commodity.
The exchange-traded funds lost 23.7 tons of gold in September and closed with a volume of 2,329 tons. The funds reported monthly outflows of $932.1 million. The value of gold assets under management was $88.9 billion. The volume was a 1% decline from August.
In September, the North American gold-backed ETFs reduced their holdings by 6.1 tons of gold to 1,173.3 tons. The U.S. holding decreased by 0.6% from August. The total volume of gold was valued at $44.8 billion after having reported outflows of approximately $257.5 million. The decline was mainly due to outflows in SPDR Gold Shares (GLD, Financial).
The European funds have unloaded holdings with 10.2 tons of gold for a total volume of about 1,037.9 tons. In September, the European holding of gold declined 1% from August. The total value of gold assets under the management of the European funds declined to $39.6 billion. That is a 2.2% decrease in value from August. The decline in value was also due to a drop in the U.S. dollar gold price.
Asian fund holdings decreased by 6.5 tons of gold for a total volume of 85.5 tons. ETFs in Asia ended September with holdings valued at $3.3 billion, which was an 8.3% decrease in value from August. The Asian funds reported outflows of $252.5 million. In September, the holding of gold decreased by 7.7% from the previous month.
ETFs in other regions saw a loss of 0.9 tons of the precious metal in September or reported outflows of $43.5 million.
At the end of September, funds in other regions had 32.4 tons of gold under management, which were worth $1.2 billion. The total holdings under the management from other regions declined 3.5%.
The chart below illustrates the geographic distribution of total gold assets under the management of worldwide exchange-traded funds:
The top three inflows to gold-backed ETFs were:
In September, the iShares Gold Trust (IAU, Financial) amassed 4.1 tons for a total volume of 267.5 tons. The American fund reported inflows of $158.7 million. The volume of assets under management increased nearly 1.6%.
The U.K.'s Source Physical Gold P-ETC (LSE:SGLP, Financial) had the second-largest inflows. The fund reported inflows of $140.5 million. It loaded 3.6 tons of gold for a total 108.7 tons. The total volume of gold under management increased 3.5%.
The SPDR Gold MiniShares (GLDM, Financial)Trust ended the month with six tons of gold after having amassed about three tons. Inflows to the fund were $117.4 million and the total volume of gold under management rose 102.8%.
The three large outflows in the gold-backed ETFs were:
The U.S. SPDR Gold Shares reported another meaningful loss with outflows of $486.8 million. The U.S.-based fund unloaded 12.9 tons. At the end of the month, the fund held 742 tons of gold. Its volume decreased by 1.7%.
iShares Physical Gold ETC (LSE:IGLN, Financial) reported outflows of $333.4 million or a 9.3% decrease in the volume of assets under management. The British fund reduced its holding by 8.4 tons for a total volume of 84.6 tons of gold.
The UBS ETF CH-Gold (XSWX:AUUSI, Financial) decreased its gold assets by 26.8%. In September, the Swiss fund unloaded 7.2 tons of gold to a volume of 19.1 tons. The fund reported an outflow of $271.9 million.
According Kitco.com, the average gold price fell 10.21% to $1,198.47 per troy ounce in September from the month of April. Because of that headwind, the North American funds have reported outflows for five months in a row. That is the main reason why, globally, gold-backed exchange-traded funds have reported nearly $1.4 billion in outflows so far this year. The outflow was also due to a stronger U.S. dollar and short positioning.
Disclosure: I have no positions in any securities mentioned in this article.
