ETFS publishes its Commodities Report for H1 2010 - highlighting fundamental factors driving performance

ETF Securities today publishes the full findings of its Commodities Review for H1 2010. Highlights include:

• The precious metals sector was the best performing commodity sector in H1 2010, up 13%. Gold was the strongest performer rising 23% in Sterling, 34% in Euro and 14% in US dollars, continuing its run as one of the best performing assets over the past ten years. This compares to a 14% decline in the FTSE 100 Index and a 20% decline in the EuroStoxx 50 index in USD over the period¹. Flows into gold ETPs rose at an unprecedented pace, with ETF Securities seeing gold ETC assets rising almost $3bn to $11.4bn. Global physically-backed gold ETP assets soared to $83bn, up $18bn (29%)¹.
• Agriculture returns were extremely diverse - ranging from an 18% rise in ETFS Coffee to a 40% decline in ETFS Sugar, reflecting the wide variety of factors affecting the agriculture markets. Agriculture ETCs have seen amongst the steadiest inflows overall since the credit crisis in late 2008, with net purchases in most of the trading weeks since the start of 2009.
• Energy saw mixed performance with oil trading around a $70-$85/bbl range and natural gas prices rebounding at the end of the half. ETC investors appeared to be well-informed on trading the oil price range with long inflows rising at the bottom of the price range and long outflows and short positions increasing at the top. Positions were reduced in natural gas ETCs as prices rose.
• Industrial metals saw sharp declines as risk appetite fell and China growth concerns took their toll in Q2. Despite the sharp declines in Q2, the strength of the rally in 2009 meant that industrial metals as a group were still up over 20% on a 12 month basis. ETFS Short Copper saw record inflows in Q1 as some investors' correctly hedged against price declines in Q2.

Click here to view ETF Securities' full report on Commodities Review H1 2010




Notes to Editor

Commodities Review H1 2010: The report details the key fundamental factors driving the returns of the wide range of long and short ETCs on ETFS' commodity platform in the hope that a better understanding of recent and longer term flow and return trends will aid investors in making profitable investments in the second half of 2010 and beyond.

About ETF Securities

ETF Securities is a provider of Exchange Traded Commodities (ETCs) and 3rd generation Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). The management of ETF Securities pioneered the development of ETCs, with the world's first listing of an ETC, Gold Bullion Securities in Australia and London in 2003 and then the world's first entire ETC platform which was listed on the London Stock Exchange in September 2006.

The Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) above provide investors with a wide variety of investment strategies, with ETPs offering resource equities, physical, long, forward, leveraged and short exposure to all commodity sectors and now Emerging Market and G10 Currencies.

ETPs are simple to access as they are traded in five currencies (EUR, USD, GBP, AUD and JPY) and listed across nine major exchanges globally including the London Stock Exchange Group (London Stock Exchange and Borsa Italiana), the New York Stock Exchange, the Tokyo Stock Exchange, NYSE-Euronext Paris, NYSE-Euronext Amsterdam, Deutsche Börse, the Australian Securities Exchange, and the Irish Stock Exchange.

For further information, please contact: ETF Securities Marketing LLP's press office on:
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7448 4330
Email: press@etfsecurities.com

To learn more about ETF Securities go to: www.etfsecurities.com This press release was issued by ETF Securities Marketing LLP ("ETFSM") for journalists in UK, Germany, Italy, France, The Netherlands, Belgium Switzerland, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Spain and Portugal. The products discussed in this document are issued by ETFS Metal Securities Limited ("MSL"), Gold Bullion Securities Limited ("GBS"), ETFS Commodity Securities Limited ("CSL"), ETFS Foreign Exchange Limited ("FXL") and ETFS Oil Securities Limited ("OSL") (together, the "Issuers") and each are regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission. The United Kingdom Listing Authority is the ‘home regulator' to MSL, GBS, CSL, OSL and FXL for purposes of passporting their prospectuses under the Prospectus Directive. The communication of this press release is not being made by, and this press release has not been approved by, an authorised person for the purposes of section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (the "FSMA"). Accordingly this press release is not being distributed to, and must not be passed on to, the general public in the United Kingdom.

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