UBS Global Asset Management has launched a new exchange-traded fund (ETF) on the London Stock Exchange. The fund, the UBS-ETF CMCI Composite, offers diversified exposure to the commodities asset class via a widely diversified and dynamic commodities index. Based on the UBS Bloomberg Constant Maturity Commodity Index (CMCI) Composite, an index developed by UBS in cooperation with Bloomberg, the fund delivers access to 28 commodity futures contracts covering the energy, industrial metals, precious metals, agriculture and livestock sectors.

Clients of Barclays Stockbrokers, a leading UK-based execution broker, are increasingly using exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and exchange-traded commodities (ETCs) to capitalise on movements in key UK FTSE equity indices and precious metals markets, according to new analysis. Data for April 2013 revealed that FTSE-related ETFs accounted for four of the top ten most traded exchange-traded products for the month, with ETCs based on gold and silver accounting for three and two of the top ten spots, respectively.

By David Stevenson – Despite all the grim news surrounding gold, I find myself looking afresh at gold mining equity funds and wondering whether now is the time to start quietly increasing my exposure. In essence, investors face two equally dismal choices. Do they focus on investing with an active fund manager who will “know” which miners to back or do they invest in a passive ETF? The second equally lethal choice is whether they should back larger lower-cost miners or junior miners where the rewards could be huge?

Despite price gains across a range of commodities last week, many commodity investors remain deeply cautious and indeed bearish. This has led many to allocate capital to specialist short exchange-traded products (ETPs), which last week enjoyed one of their best ever weeks on record, in terms of asset flows. London-headquartered ETF Securities saw particularly strong inflows into its gold and copper-based products.

ETF Securities believes that the commodity super-cycle is far from over, despite recent falls in commodity prices which have wiped billions off the firm’s assets under management. The London-headquartered exchange-traded product (ETP) provider asserts that the main fundamental drivers of the super-cycle are still in force and that recent commodity price weaknesses are more related to business-cycle fluctuations and short-term commodity-specific supply increases than a change in structural fundamentals.

Expectations of a recovery for gold are mixed, according to a survey of Barclays Stockbrokers clients. Just under a third of respondents think the value of gold will bounce back above $1,500/oz in the next six months, while more than a quarter expect it to drop below $1,300/oz. The broker also revealed that the top five traded exchange-traded commodities (ETCs) in the week following the metal’s dramatic fall were all related to precious metals, comprising three gold ETCs – led by ETF Securities’ ETFS Physical Gold (PHAU) – and two silver ETCs.

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and related exchange-traded products (ETPs) linked to the inverse performance of the gold price have surged over the past few weeks as the precious metal has tumbled following downgrades from a number of prominent research houses. One of the best performing ETPs in this space is the London-listed Boost Gold 3x Short Daily ETP (3GOS), which provides triple short exposure to the gold price. It is up 48.5% month-to-date on the back of the dramatic sell-off.

As global growth and risk appetite picked up in the first quarter of 2013, commodity investors rotated out of exchange-traded products (ETPs) linked to gold and into more cyclical commodity ETPs such as silver, copper, palladium, platinum and broad commodity trackers. Gold ETPs saw $9.2 billion of outflows during the quarter as improving US growth data drove up US interest rate expectations, increased speculation that quantitative easing might be ratcheted back and boosted the US dollar.

Contrary to recent forecasts predicting the end of the gold bull market, Graham Tuckwell, Founder and Chairman of ETF Securities, believes untapped demand from China and India, and retail investors, will lead to a second decade of growth for the gold market. Ten years on since Tuckwell launched the world’s first physical gold exchange-traded product in Australia, similar products are now listed on 31 exchanges throughout the world and have seen assets under management reach $147 billion.

ETF Securities, a leading provider of commodity-related exchange-traded products (ETPs), has unveiled a couple of new products offering currency-hedged access to gold. The new London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Börse-listed products give sterling and euro-denominated investors direct exposure to physical gold, whilst mitigating the effects of currency volatility by reducing exposure to the US dollar, the currency in which gold is priced.