Investors dumped gold and energy exchange traded products (ETPs) in May as some of the heat came out of the Ukraine crisis, the latest monthly data from asset manager BlackRock shows. Some $297 million was withdrawn from gold ETPs and energy ETPs lost $215 million after chocolate magnate Petro Poroshenko claimed Ukraine's presidency and pledged to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
"Since the election, investors have become a bit more positive about developments and are possibly cutting their positions on the view that they don't need to hedge to the same degree as before," said Nick Brooks, head of research and investment strategy at ETF Securities, an issuer of ETPs.
ETPs, whose value is linked to moves in their underlying assets, offer an easy route into commodities for investors and allow asset allocators to make quick, tactical changes to their portfolios. Ursula Marchioni, head of ETP research and equity strategy for iShares EMEA at BlackRock, said that last month's fall in the gold price had also contributed to redemptions.
A $361 million outflow from agriculture ETPs was also attributed to price movements, with the S&P GSCI Agriculture index down 8.1 percent in May. Marchioni said that corn prices had come off by about 10 percent and wheat prices by about 13 percent. "The drop in corn and wheat prices may have been related to reports of a strong crop and good weather for the planting season," she said.
Broad basket commodity ETPs attracted $231 million, which would seem to go against the prevailing trend, but Marchioni said these inflows were mainly from two US funds. In the year to date, broad market commodity ETP inflows have been led by European investors. The industrial metals sector was the best performing index in May with prices gaining 2.6 percent, S&P Dow Jones Indices said. Copper was up 3.5 percent, which it attributed to recovering demand in China.
Nickel also continued its bull run, up another 4.9 percent in May due to supply shortages resulting from the Indonesian ban on exports, it added. So far this year, commodity ETPs have lost about $312 million, but Marchioni said this was a big improvement compared with January-May 2013. Over that period, commodity ETPs shed $24.7 billion, mostly from gold trackers.
Comments
Comments are closed.