ETF Securities Weekly Flows Analysis – Investors appear to rotate from gold to silver ETPs

Highlights

• Silver ETPs receive highest weekly inflows since January 2015.
• Equity contrarians looking to buy Italian ETFs.
• Long crude oil ETPs saw US$45mn outflows as WTI oil declined the most in 10 weeks.

Silver ETPs receive highest weekly inflows since January 2015. Silver’s underperformance relative to gold has been correcting in recent weeks. The gold-to-silver ratio has declined to 78 on 25th May from a 2-year high of 82 reached in April. While gold remains under pressure from a rising interest rate environment in the US, silver has the potential to leverage off its industrial’s traits. With global purchasing managers indices seeing improvement in the start Q2, the outlook for industrial demand for silver is looking good. Silver had been in a supply deficit in since 2013 and the lack of capital expenditure in mines in recent years its likely to see that supply deficit persist. Growing demand from electronics (in particular in cars) and photovoltaics bodes well for the metal. Long silver ETPs saw US$97.3mn of inflows last week. Gold ETPs on the other hand saw outflows. Despite gold seeing gains toward the end of the week after the US-North Korea-South Korea summit experienced further turbulence, gold ETPs saw US$63.5mn outflows during the week as gold prices were predominantly falling.

Equity contrarians looking to buy Italian ETFs. The forming of an all-populist coalition government in Italy spooked the market and the FTSE MIB declined a good 4.5% last week. Prior to the events that caused further turmoil over the weekend, ETF investors appear to have sensed a buying opportunity. US$8.2mn of inflows into long FTSE MIB ETFs were the highest since July 2016.

Sugar ETPs saw largest outflows since July 2015 as investors appear to take profit. Sugar prices rose 7% last week as the market reassessed the extent of global over-supply. After a bumper cane crop (and strong crush thereafter), the market was conditioned to think that India would flood the market with high levels of exports. But it appears that India is happy to hold a larger inventory this year. At the same time, less favourable weather is likely to reduce supplies from Brazil and relatively strong oil prices are likely to see a higher amount of cane be diverted to ethanol production rather than sugar. Long sugar ETPs saw US$8.5mn of outflows last week as investors appeared to take profit on the recent price increase.

Investors appear to profit-take on industrial metals. Broad industrial metal prices have risen 1.5% after in the past month, after a period of decline. Investors appear to have taken profit on these moves. US$16.6mn of outflows last week were the highest in eight weeks. While the fundamentals on industrial metals remain supportive, near-term headwinds from an appreciating US Dollar could cap price gains.

Long crude oil ETPs saw US$45mn outflows as WTI oil declined the most in 10 weeks. WTI oil prices fell 5% last week as OPEC and Russia signalled they are ready to increase supply. It is not clear by how much they will increase production or to what extent the 14 member group (and 10 non-OPEC countries participating in the voluntary production adjustments) even agree with reducing production curbs. We expect more clarity after the 174th OPEC meeting scheduled on 22nd June.

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