Purchases of gold exchange traded products hit an all-time record in March, while investors pulled record amounts from domestically listed European equity funds as the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine ripped through markets.
Global net inflows into gold ETPs rose fivefold month-on-month to $11.3bn in March, according to data from BlackRock, eclipsing the previous peak of $9.4bn in July 2020. The surge in buying helped push the gold price to within a whisker of its all-time high in early March, although it has since eased back.
In contrast, a shortlived bout of enthusiasm for European equities has been obliterated by the conflict. Outflows from European stock funds listed in the Emea region hit an all-time high of $5.5bn in March — unwinding virtually all of the $6.1bn of inflows witnessed in January, which had been the strongest burst of buying in the region since 2015.