JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Gold-backed exchange traded funds (ETFs) added 72.2 t to their holdings in April, taking overall holdings to 2 481 t.
According to the latest statistics by the World Gold Council, this is the strongest month of net inflows in more than a year.
Growth in global holdings was led by significant North American and European inflows and supported by a small increase in Asia.
North American and European funds saw solid net inflows of 44 t and 26 t, respectively, in April.
SDPR gold shares and iShares gold trust took the lion’s share of North American inflows, increasing 25.1 t and 17.1 t during the month.
Inflows in Europe were led by Xtrackers Physical Gold, Invesco Physical Gold, Xetra-Gold and ETFS EUR Daily Hedged Physical Gold.
Total fund holdings in Asia rose by 2.4 t to 80.2 t, while funds in other regions had a marginal loss of 1 t or 3% of assets.