Several gold ETPs saw significant outflows following the commodities milestone of reaching $2,000 an ounce at the beginning of August.
According to data from Ultumus, the Xtrackers Physical Gold Euro Hedged ETC (XAD1) had $-369.7m of net flows in the week commencing 10 August.
Additionally, the Invesco Physical Gold ETC (SGLD) and the iShares Physical Gold ETC (SGLN) saw $196m and $79.9m outflows.
By Monday’s close, the price of gold was $2,014 an ounce after the yellow metal surpassed the $2,000 an ounce mark on 4 August.
In tandem, various equity ETFs attracted new assets as markets continue recovering from the volatile periods seen in March.
The Xtrackers MSCI World UCITS ETF (XDWD) saw the largest volume of inflows over the same period, finishing the week with $172m in net new assets.
More regional focused equity ETFs also saw inflows including the UBS MSCI EMU UCITS ETF (EMUAA) with $160.2m inflows.
The Vanguard FTSE North American UCITS ETF (VNRT) and the Invesco S&P 500 UCITS ETF (SPXS) received $164.6m and $151.2m, respectively, despite the S&P 500 index being mostly flat throughout August.
Are ETF investors dictating the price of gold?
Salman Baig, multi-asset investment manager at Unigestion, said the financial environment has not favoured gold in recent weeks.
Baig explained: “Global recession risk and inflation risk have hovered around neutral, while the risk of a market stress episode has been low.
“Such an environment would typically be a rather poor one for gold while many investors view gold as a contra-currency and storehold of wealth, and flock to it when fears of inflation or crisis arise.”
Unigestion also sees growth-related assets such as equities, in particular, are indicating a V-shaped recovery.
