Commodity ETFs the winners in Q1

European investors are ramping up their exposure to the commodities sector in 2017 and increasingly turning to ETFs, said ETF provider Source.

Commodity ETFs the winners in Q1

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Within the first quarter of 2017, investors poured $1.3bn into broad commodity ETFs, nearly rivalling the $1.8bn invested into commodities in 2016.  

Source’s product specialist Chris Mellor said the flows are evidence that “investors wanting to diversify their portfolios are turning to commodities.”

“That makes sense given the low correlation commodities have with equities and bonds, and especially now that some equity valuations may look stretched,” he added. 

The vast majority of this year’s commodity flows have trickled into ETFs that hug the Bloomberg Commodity Index, according to Mellor.

Seeing an opening in the market for low-cost commodity ETFs, Source unveiled its own Bloomberg Commodity ETF in January.

Boasting a total cost of 0.4% per annum, made up of an ongoing charge of 0.19% and swap fee of 0.21%, Source said the fund has already attracted over $1bn since its launch.

“Investors have been crying out for a more competitively priced, simple commodity ETF,” Mellor explained.

“Prior to this launch the lowest cost commodity ETF in Europe had an ongoing charge of 0.35% and a total cost of 0.75% per annum, almost twice as much as our fund.”

The fund is now available to investors in both sterling and dollar trading currencies on the LSE.

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