Source ETC range surpasses €500m in first year

Exchange-traded product provider Source has seen total assets in its exchange-traded commodities (ETC) range surpass the €500m mark in the year since launch.

Source has also seen assets in its ETC range nearly double in size since the beginning of this year, largely bolstered by the Source Physical Gold P-ETC, which has garnered $370m in total assets.

This gold product captured over $100m of inflows in April, as investors increased allocations to gold as a safe-haven asset amid stock market uncertainty.

The firm listed 27 T-ETCs, which are secured with US Treasury bills, on the Deutsche Boerse's Xetra and one physical gold ETC on the London Stock Exchange last year.

In response to investor demand for enhanced commodity index exposure, Source unveiled its Crude Oil Enhanced T-ETC on Xetra. Inflows have amounted to over $70m year-to-date in 2010.

Source says the performance of conventional front-month future-tracking oil ETPs has widely diverged from the spot price of oil.

The enhanced ETC tracks the S&P GSCI Crude Oil Enhanced Total Return index, which adjusts its exposure to the futures curve on a monthly basis by moving between front month and six months Nymex WTI futures contracts, depending on the steepness of the curve.

Source has also announced the total turnover on its European sector ETFs hit €5.9bn in April, according to Clearstream's German settlement system, Cascade. This represents 75.8% of Cascade's reported European sector turnover activity.

Source director of marketing Michael John Lytle says: "Flows in sector ETFs now represent a meaningful slice of overall sector investing in Europe. The arrival of hedge funds as sector ETF investors brings a new dimension to the market."

The firm's banks ETF had the highest net inflows during April, seeing €34m, followed by autos with €20m.

However, industrials, utilities and insurance Source sectors accounted for more than 70% of net outflows, with €34m, €19m and €17m respectively.

Source is an open architecture platform based on a range of partners including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Nomura, Nyenburgh and 14 market makers.