Investment in gold ETFs climbed +40.89K oz, or +0.06%, to 66.04M oz in the week ended November 19. During the week, spot gold prices plunged -0.12% while benchmark gold futures slipped -0.97%.

ZKB Gold ETF, representing around 9% of total holdings, gained +21.57K oz to 5.93M oz. the fund's gold holdings rose +1.25M oz since the beginning of the year. iShares Comex Gold Trust, New Gold and ETFS Physical Swiss Gold Shares also recorded gains during the week. SPDR Gold Trust, which represents 63% of global ETF holdings, posted a net decline of -48.83K oz last week, taking the year-to-date investment to 5.01M oz and the combined holdings to 41.45M oz. Other funds showing redeptions were Gold Bullion Securities and ETFS (London).

Total gold holdings soared +9.24M oz, or +16.27%, since the beginning of the year. Compared with a 15.93M oz jump in the same period last year, investment demand for gold was rather 'small'. We expect demand growth this year would underperform that of last year.

For silver, ETF investments rose +3.12M oz, or +0.57%, to 552.69M oz last week. This underperformed silver prices which jumped +5.04% and +4.77% in spots and futures respectively.

iShares Silver Trust, representing +63% of global silver ETFs, added +3.08M oz during the week, taking the year-to-date investment to 42.49M oz and the combined holdings to 347.70M oz. ETFS Physical Silver Shares gained +796.61K oz to 14.05K oz. Year-to-date, the fund recorded +4.86M oz increase in silver holdings. Despite the small fund size, ETFS (Australia) gained +229.45K oz, bringing the year-to-date investment to 502.29K oz and the combined holdings to 911.77K oz. Note that holdings in the ETF more than doubled since the beginning of the year. The 2 funds recording redemption were ETFS (London) and ZKB Silver ETF. They together reduced silver holdings by -987.11K oz during the week.

Total silver holdings surged 87.82M oz, or +18.89%, since the beginning of the year. Compared with a 92.17M oz jump in the same period in 2009, total increase in holdings may exceed that of last year if demand growth keeps the current pace.

Investment in platinum ETFs increased +48.44K oz, or +4.53%, to 1.12Moz, outperforming modest decline in platinum prices. 3 out of 5 ETFS recorded gains while the rest showed no change during the week. ETFS (US) soared +39.74K oz to 362.99K oz, ETFS (London) climbed +5.55K oz to 385.82K oz while ZKB Platinum ETF added 3.53K oz to 321.48K oz. Investment demand surged this year after launch of the US-listed ETF by ETF Securities in January. Year-to-date, total platinum holdings increased +437.70K oz, or +64.30%, to 1.12M oz. Indeed, rise in platinum holdings has almost doubled last year's growth of +252.25K oz.

Palladium ETFs recorded an increase of +37.58K oz, taking total holdings to 1.96M oz. ETF (US) rose +49.65K oz to 920.36K oz but was offset by a -12.08K oz decline in ZKB Palladium ETF. Similar to platinum, investment demand has been buoyed by the launch ETF Securities' US-listed ETF. Since the beginning of the year, total holdings surged +787.89K oz, or 67.47%, to 1.96M oz. Holdings only increased +424.99M oz in the same period last year.