Five funds with the highest exposure to gold

Following yesterday’s post on investing in gold (click here to view) I promised to list the collective funds with the highest current exposure to gold.

Having said that, you would be hard pushed to find a fund that exclusively invests in the precious metal. Well in fact you won’t find one. If you want exclusive exposure to the price of gold see yesterday’s article for a link to a guide explaining how this can be achieved. However, for most people investment funds, which can also be accessed via existing investment products such as pensions or investment bonds, still provide the most likely route to obtaining some exposure to gold.

Most ‘gold’ funds do not invest in the gold price or hold actual gold bullion but instead invest in gold and mining equities. As pointed out in a recent article in the Telegraph (The gold investment fund that doesn't invest in gold) a fund doesn’t always do ‘exactly what it says on the tin’. A useful thing to bear in mind whenever you are choosing a fund to invest in.

Ironically, some of the supposed ‘gold’ funds have actually outperformed the gold price in recent months. But obviously this won’t necessarily always be the case. So remember the funds I’ve listed below invest in equities and so their volatility will reflect this fact.

In any event after looking at in excess of 2,500 funds the top 5 funds with exposure to gold and mining equities are (they are ranked by their percentage exposure, given in brackets. The list does not take into account fund performance):

1. Investec - Global Gold  - (83.80%)
2. BlackRock - Gold & General – (82.30%)
3. Smith & Williamson - Global Gold & Resources – (72.10%)
4. JPM - Natural Resources – (38.20%)
5. First State - Global Resources  - (26.40%)

Figures as at end of September and derived from Financial Express data. If you are interested in any of the above funds make sure you seek out their fund factsheet in the first instance for more information.