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Informist, Tuesday, Apr. 8, 2025

 

MUMBAI – Global gold exchange-traded funds saw inflows for the fourth straight month in March, led by inflows across all regions, with assets rising by 92 tonnes from a month ago to 3,445.3 tonnes, the World Gold Council said in a report Tuesday. The asset under management reached another all-time-high of $345 billion, representing an increase of 13% in March.

 

"Global physically backed gold exchange-traded funds reported strong inflows in March totalling $8.6 billion, which helped drive total Q1 (Jan-Mar) flows of $21 billion (226 tonnes) to the second highest quarterly level in dollar terms, only behind Q2 (Apr-Jun) 2020's $24 billion (433 tonnes)," the WGC said.

 

In March, European gold exchange-traded funds saw inflows of $1 billion or 13.7 tonnes, led by higher demand in the UK, Switzerland, and Germany. "Although the Bank of England made no changes to its benchmark rate during its March meeting, a cloudy growth outlook further weighed by US tariff concerns, weak stock market performance and the gold price surge, drove demand higher in the UK," the report said.

 

Asian gold exchange-traded funds saw inflows of 9.5 tonnes, or $943.5 million, in March. "China and Japan dominated demand in March, both likely driven by rocketing gold price performances, which dwarfed other assets in the month, and roaring global trade policy risks," WGC said.

 

Indian gold exchange-traded funds witnessed an outflow of 0.4 tonnes in March, ending its 11-month inflow streak as investors may have booked profit. The total assets under management in the country fell to 63.8 tonnes in March from 64.2 tonnes in February.

 

In India, ICICI Prudential Gold iWIN ETF saw an outflow of 0.5 tonne, or $45.2 million, in March. The fund ranked sixth globally in terms of fund outflows. The top 15 funds in terms of outflows also includes Nippon India ETF Gold BeES at the eighth position and Kotak Gold ETF at the ninth position.

 

Holdings with North American funds saw an inflow of 67.4 tonnes, or $6.5 billion in March, constituting 76% of total flows, the report said. WGC said that the strong price momentum sent gold above $3,000 an ounce, US yields remained rangebound, the dollar slipped to levels not seen last November, tariff and war uncerntainty provided continued support. "Equity pullbacks, due to growth concerns and market liquidity worries amid ongoing quantitative tightening, further pushed up investor demand for safe-haven assets", it said.

 

Gold holdings with SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, rose by 29 tonnes to 933.1 tonnes in March. The second-largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, iShares Gold Trust, saw an inflow of 13.6 tonnes, with holdings at 424.8 tonnes.

 

The daily average trading volume across all gold markets in March came in at $266 billion a day, broadly in line with the quarterly average of $270 billion a day. Total net long positions on the COMEX fell by 3% on month to 804 tonnes as of March-end, with net long positions of money managers falling by 6 tonnes from February to 605 tonnes. 

 

At 2053 IST, the June contract of gold on the COMEX was at $3,023.30 per ounce, up 1.7% from Monday's close. End

 

US$1 = INR 86.26

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Reported by Sandeep Sinha

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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