Biggest two-day inflow into gold ETFs in nearly six years
Precious metals: Gold defended its territory yesterday despite rising stock markets and a firmer US dollar and this morning is trading at just shy of $1,220 per troy ounce. Gold in euro terms has regained the €1,100 per troy ounce mark. Gold is finding support from renewed massive ETF inflows, holdings in the gold ETFs tracked by Bloomberg being increased by a further 24.4 tons yesterday. Inflows amounted to around 50 tons within two days – this is the sharpest two-day inflow since the Greek crisis first flared up in May 2010 and equates to roughly six days of global gold mining production. Since the beginning of February, more gold has meanwhile flowed into the ETFs than was withdrawn in the whole of last year. This puts total holdings at 1,665 tons, their highest level in nearly a year. ETF investors, who are generally regarded as having a longer term horizon, clearly view the current price level as an attractive opportunity to buy. The high ETF purchases should lend further support to the gold price in our opinion.
Unlike the gold ETFs, palladium ETFs are seeing further outflows. Holdings have now been reduced by 147,000 ounces again since the beginning of the year after last year already saw outflows of 723,000 ounces. This overshadows the robust auto sales in all key sales regions/countries. Palladium is therefore trading at a two-week low of below $500 per troy ounce this morning.
