The investment demand for Exchange Traded Products (ETP) holding precious metals has remained robust throughout the recent correction with total holdings in gold falling by less than one percent, according to Bloomberg, while silver has seen continued buying interest.
Not least this week where the biggest silver exchange-traded fund (ETF), the iShares Silver Trust, saw its assets climb by 572 tons, the most in five years. This dramatic increase brought the total known holdings in such silver funds up to a new record of 19,687 tons, an increase of 770 tons so far this January.
With global economic activity expected to improve silver’s double role as both a financial investment and an industrial metal could help explain this sudden increased interest for silver. Silver holdings through ETPs are only 7.5 greater than gold so it still represents a relatively small value considering gold’s price tag which is 53 times greater than silver.