ETF Securities, a London-based specialist issuer of exchange-traded commodities, saw an increase of over US$700 million in holdings of its precious metals trackers during the week ending Friday 9 October.

Investor purchases of gold ETCs accounted for 75% of all ETC inflows over the period, with ETFS Physical Gold (PHAU), Gold Bullion Securities (GBS) and the US-listed ETFS Gold Trust (SGOL) accounting for the bulk of the increase.

Inflows into other precious metals trackers totalled US$106 million, with the US-listed ETFS Silver Trust (SIVR) and ETFS Physical Silver (PHAG) rising by a combined US$37 million, ETFS Physical Platinum (PHPT) by US$29 million, ETFS Precious Metals Basket (PHPM) by US$24 million and ETFS Palladium (PHPD) by US$15 million.

Since the beginning of 2009, the major European physically backed gold tracker products (ETF Securities’ PHAU and GBS, ZKB’s gold ETF and Julius Baer’s physical gold fund) have seen nearly US$8 billion in combined inflows, as can be seen from the table below.