South Korea’s silver backed funds delivered near 15-percent yields over the last month as the price of the precious metal has recently fast gained to catch up the gold price that soared on growing demand for safe-haven assets at a time of economic uncertainties.

According to the Korea Exchange on Sunday, two of the country’s silver exchange-traded notes (ETNs) that track the price of silver returned profit of over 14 percent in a month - Shinhan Investment Corp.’s Leverage Silver Futures ETN 14.67 percent and Samsung Securities Co.’s Leverage Silver Futures ETN 14.64 percent.

Exchange trade funds (ETFs) that set silver as a basic asset also performed well. The yield on KODEX Silver Futures ETF reached 7.47 percent.

Global economic uncertainties from a protracted trade war between the United States and China have led investors to seek safer assets, causing global prices of precious metals such as gold and silver to rise.

In particular, the global silver price that lagged that of the gold in the first half of this year recently started its rally in “catch-up” mode, market analysts said.

Silver traded at $16.34 per ounce last Thursday, up 6.8 percent from a month ago. But the gold price, which outperformed the silver in the first six months of this year and already hit as high as $1,426 per ounce in mid-July, has been fluctuating after slipping to $1,410 recently with investors cashing profits.

In line with softening demand for gold in recent weeks, the country’s gold tracking instruments underperformed the silver tracking securities. KINDEX Gold Futures Leverage ETF recorded a 1.32 percent yield for the past month and Shinhan Leverage Gold Futures ETN 2.93 percent. The monthly return on KODEX Gold Futures ETF stood at 0.3 percent for the same period.

Market experts anticipate that investors’ appetite for precious metals and related funds would continue to sizzle as risk aversion will likely remain high among investors amid growing expectations for rate cuts across the world due to rising concerns over the global economic slowdown.

By Chung Seul-gi and Cho Jeehyun

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