Gold has beaten high-performing equity indices

Although gold performed favourably in 2023, rising 9 per cent in the Eurozone and 13 per cent in the US, gold funds and gold-backed ETCs in both regions generally saw more outflows than inflows last year – a trend that continued in 2024, albeit in a much weaker form. This is, in part, certainly due to the even more successful performance of numerous benchmark indices, which seem to be moving from one all-time high to another, at least until recently, since gold outperformed all major Western indices in the first three and a half months of 2024.

Price of gold in the Eurozone up 16.4 per cent in 2024

The DAX, Germany’s benchmark equity index, is continuing the rally that started in 2023 and has gained almost 8 per cent since the start of the year. The EURO STOXX 50, comprising the most important European stocks, has gained almost 11 per cent over the same period. The top US equity indices have performed similarly well this year: the S&P 500, a comprehensive industrial equity index, has risen by 8.8 per cent, the NASDAQ 100 by just under 9 per cent, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average index was up only 2 per cent. Over the same period, gold has gained 16.4 per cent in the Eurozone (as at 11 April 2024) and 13.25 per cent in North America, thus even outperforming the high-performing equity indices in 2024.

Asian gold funds have grown continuously

According to the latest data from the World Gold Council, gold-backed ETFs have recorded growth across most Asian countries over long stretches of the past year and in 2024 to date – in some cases even significantly so, as in Malaysia. There, gold funds increased by 17.5 per cent in the first months of 2024 alone. Net inflows in other Asian countries have not been quite as significant but steady, for example in China (mainland) with 8.9 per cent growth since the beginning of the year, India at 5.9 per cent, Japan at 5.2 per cent and Hong Kong at 4.4 per cent (as at 31 March 2024).