HardAssetsInvestor

Written by Drew Voros  |

September 07, 2012

Commodity ETF Flows: Metals Funds See Big Surge Of Inflows, Gold & Silver Miner Funds Outperform

Details

Investors exit ag and energy funds as spiking metal prices attract new capital to related funds.

Investors added more than $1 billion of new capital into commodity-related, exchange-traded products last week ending Thursday, with precious metals as well as industrial metals capturing the lion’s share of inflows.

Precious metals funds saw $661 million in new inflows as prices in the sector continued their ascent, followed by broad market (multicommodity) with $291 million and industrial metals with $217 million in new investment capital.

Energy funds led outflows, with $91 million, followed by agriculture funds, which saw $37 million go out the door.

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

ETP Inflows/Outflows

While PowerShares DB Commodity Tracking (NYSE Arca: DBC) led all funds, with $247 million in inflows, gold funds dominated the rest of the top inflows. Market Vector Gold Miners (NYSE Arca: GDX) registered $245 million in inflows, followed by iShares MSCI Global Select Metals & Mining Producers (NYSE Arca: PICK) with $208 million, SPDR Gold (NYSE Arca: GLD) with $197 million and iShares Gold Trust (NYSE Arca: IAU) with $115 million in inflows.

Energy funds topped the outflows list, with Energy Select SPDR (NYSE Arca: XLE) having a total of $200 million, followed by United States Natural Gas (NYSE Arca: UNG) with $53 million, ProShares Ultra DJ-UBS Crude Oil (NYSE Arca: UCO) with $35 million, Market Vectors Agribusiness (NYSE Arca: MOO) with $25 million and ETFS Physical Platinum (NYSE Arca: PPLT) with $15 million in outflows.

ETP Performance

Gold and silver mining funds were the top performers for the week, led by Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners (NYSE Arca: GDX) with a 8.32 percent jump, followed by iShares MSCI Global Silver Miners (NYSE Arca: SLVP) rising 8.31 percent, Global X Silver Miners (NYSE Arca: SIL) with a 7.76 percent increase, PowerShares DB Silver (NYSE Arca: DBS) with a 6.74 percent gain and Etracs CMCI Silver Total Return ETN (NYSE Arca: USV) adding 6.49 percent.

The worst performers consisted of a mixed bag of funds, led by PowerShares Global Steel (NYSE Arca: PSTL) falling 6.95 percent, followed by Elements MLCX Biofuels Total Return ETN (NYSE Arca: FUE) with a 5.72 percent loss, Guggenheim Solar (NYSE Arca: TAN) with a 5.47 percent decline, Market Vectors Solar Energy (NYSE Arca: KWT) with a 5.22 percent fall and iPath Pure Beta Sugar ETN (NYSE Arca: SGAR) seeing a 5.08 percent drop-off.

Fund Flows Data: (August 31 - September 6, 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.