Silver, not gold, was what glittered for investors last month, a BlackRock report on March global exchange-traded product flows revealed.
Net inflows into silver ETPs totaled $1 billion in March, the biggest inflow month for ETPs related to that commodity since January 2021, the report said. In January 2021, silver ETPs netted $1.9 billion, according to BlackRock data.
“These (March) silver inflows went entirely into EMEA-listed ETPs, with EMEA investors simultaneously continuing to sell gold,” the report said. EMEA is short for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
“We’ve seen client interest pick up in silver as a gold catch-up trade recently,” said Laura Cooper, senior macro investment strategist for iShares EMEA at BlackRock.
The spread to gold in terms of spot prices is “near all-time highs,” Cooper said.
“We see room for the silver catch-up trade to run — aside from the valuation gap, silver has more industrial use cases, which could be a tailwind with manufacturing bottoming out, too,” she said.
Gold ETPs recorded about $400 million of outflows globally in March, while outflows from EMEA-listed gold ETPs totaled $1.2 billion last month, the report said. U.S.-listed gold ETPs had $600 million of inflows in March, while $200 million flowed into Asia-Pacific-listed gold ETPs, according to BlackRock data.
When it comes to overall global ETP flows, March ranks as this year’s highest net-inflow month so far, with $126.5 billion of net inflows, up from $109.7 billion in February, the report said.
