HardAssetsInvestor

Written by Drew Voros  |

August 10, 2012

Commodity ETF Flows: Investors Pour Back Into Energy & Gold, Solar Funds KWT & TAN Outperform

Details

Commodity funds saw more than $653 million in inflows this past week with XLE & GLD leading the way.

Popular gold and energy funds paced commodity-related exchange-traded products to a strong week ending Thursday of inflows with more than $653 million in new investment money.

All sectors but agriculture saw inflows, led by precious metals funds that attracted nearly $367 million, followed by energy with $269 million, broad market (multicommodity) with $40 million and industrial metals with $4 million. Ag saw outflows of $27 million.

Exchange-traded products (ETPs) include exchange-traded funds (ETFs), exchange-traded vehicles (ETVs) and exchange-traded notes (ETNs).

ETP Inflows/Outflows

Energy and gold funds dominated inflows, with Energy Select SPDR (NYSE Arca: XLE) topping the list with $363 million, followed by SPDR Gold (NYSE Arca: GLD) with $155 million, Market Vectors Gold Miners (NYSE Arca: GDX) with $128 million, SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production (NYSE Arca: XOP) with $127 million and iShares Gold Trust (NYSE Arca: IAU) receiving $87 million in new investment capital.

Energy funds also commanded the top five outflows for the week, with United States Natural Gas (NYSE Arca: UNG) losing $97 million, followed by United States Oil (NYSE Arca: USO) with $88 million, ProShares Ultra DJ-UBS Crude Oil (NYSE Arca: UCO) with $44 million, Direxion Daily Energy Bull 3X (NYSE Arca: ERX) with $32 million and ETFS Physical Swiss Gold (NYSE Arca: SGOL) with $32 million in outflows.

ETP Performance

Solar funds shined brightly on the performance chart, with Guggenheim Solar (NYSE Arca: TAN) posting a red-hot 12.61 percent gain, followed by Market Vectors Solar Energy (NYSE Arca: KWT) with a 11.15 percent gain, Market Vector Steel (NYSE Arca: SLX) with a 9.48 percent increase, Market Vectors Coal (NYSE Arca: KOL) with a 9.39 percent jump and iShares S&P Global Clean Energy (NYSE Arca: ICLN) with 8.62 percent in appreciation.

Falling sugar prices left a sour taste in the mouths of investors, as three related funds topped the underperformance list, with iPath Dow Jones-UBS Sugar Total Return ETN (NYSE Arca: SGG) falling 5.78 percent, followed by iPath Pure Beta Sugar ETN (NYSE Arca: SGAR) with a 5.35 percent drop, Teucrium Sugar (NYSE Arca: CANE) with a 4.58 percent decrease, iPath Dow Jones-UBS Coffee Total Return ETN (NYSE Arca: JO) with a 3.03 percent fall and iPath Dow Jones-UBS Softs Total Return ETN (NYSE Arca: JJS) shedding 2.27 percent.

Fund Flows Data: (August 03 - August 09, 2012)

Commodity ETF Weekly Flows By Sector

Top 5 Commodity ETF Creations

Top 5 Commodity ETF Redemptions

Top 5 Weekly Performers, Excluding <1,000 Shares Traded

Bottom 5 Weekly Performers, Excluding <1,000 Shares Traded

Top 5 Volume Surprises, Funds >$50 mm AUM

Disclaimer: Data provided by IndexUniverse. All data as of 6 a.m. Eastern the date of publication. Data is believed to be accurate; however, transient market data is often subject to subsequent revision and correction by the exchanges.