China’s gold craze has taken many forms-bullion mini bars, panda coins and even baby-appropriate gold gifts. But now the gold rush is spilling into a new global arena: exchange-traded funds, a key market for investors in the precious metal.
Lion Fund Management, a well-connected investment house backed by the Sinochem Group, has just launched the country’s first mutual fund that will invest in gold-back exchange-traded funds overseas.
The fund is small by the standards of the gold world, with an investment quota of $500m. (By comparison the world’s largest gold exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Trust, has holdings worth more than $57bn.)