SPDR Gold Shares ETF

According to a Straits Times article dated 16 January 2026, there was a net inflow of $2.4 billion to SGX-listed ETFs. Among the ETFs, SPDR Gold Shares ETF enjoyed a spectacular return of 57% as investors’ interest in gold surged following escalating geopolitical tensions.

As I am looking to diversify my SRS portfolio with different asset classes, SPDR Gold Shares ETF is an interesting value proposition. Currently, 60% of my SRS portfolio comprises of Singapore Savings Bonds (SSB) and 35% in equities. I am thinking of allocating the remaining 5% of my SRS funds in gold.

Gold prices continued its blistering form in 2026 against the backdrop of geopolitical tensions. Following the capture of Venezuela President, Donald Trump has turned his attention on acquiring Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark. Investors piled on gold, traditionally viewed as safe haven. Recently, I am looking at SPDR Gold Shares ETF to see if it is a viable investment to diversify my SRS portfolio.

Exchange-traded fund is a passive investment in which a fund attempts to replicate the performance of the index in which it is tracking. Broadly speaking, ETF is a type of collective investment scheme that pooled money from investors and invests according to the fund’s objective. In a way, ETF is quite similar to unit trust.

The key difference between unit trust and exchange traded fund is that the former is actively managed by professionals while the latter passively tracks a specified index. Because of this, ETFs are open-ended investment funds that are usually traded on a stock exchange.Note that this is an opinion article and not meant to be a financial advice. Please do your due diligence or engage financial advisors before investing in the stock market. Furthermore, I am not vested and have never invested in SPDR Gold Shares ETF before. Whether SPDR Gold Shares ETF will surge or collapse has no impact on me. Thus, this article is not meant to induce readers to make any form of investment decisions.

Reviewing SPDR Gold Shares ETF

ETF offers investors a low-cost and efficient way of investing in an underlying asset class. ETF transactions incur only a brokerage fee ranging from 0.08% to 0.28% and SGX trading and clearing fees. On the other hand, unit trusts generally involve several “hidden” costs like sales fees as well as entrance and exit fees. Additionally, you have to pay either an upfront sales charge or a redemption charge of 1.5% to 5%.

When you buy SPDR Gold Shares ETF, you actually own shares of the Trust holding the physical gold. The fund seeks to track the price of gold minus the funds expenses, which is 0.4% of the daily NAV.  The ETF will sell gold to cover the expenses. As SPDR Gold Shares ETF is backed by physical gold and seeks to mirror the price of gold, the fund has increased its amount of gold from 28 million ounces in September 2024 to 32.5 million ounces in September 2025.

SPDR Gold Shares ETF is unique as it is the only ETF in SGX that offers investors the means to participate in the gold bullion market – LBMA Gold Price Precious Metals. The SPDR Gold Shares are primarily listed on NYSE Arca and cross-listed on SGX. An interesting thing about SPDR Gold Shares is that investors can choose to trade in US currency (O87) or Singapore dollar (GLD).

Being backed by physical gold, the value of SPDR Gold shares relates directly to the value of the gold held by the Trust of SPDR Gold Shares ETF. The Trust holds gold bullion issues the SPDR Gold Shares in blocks of 100,000 shares in exchange for deposits of bullion and distributes the gold during redemption. The liquidity comes not only from secondary market (retail investors), but also primary market which comprises of brokers, trusts and authorized participants.

SPDR Gold Shares ETF is eligible under CPF and SRS, and are traded in board lot size of 1 share. The board lot size allows accessibility to retail investors who may want to adopt a Dollar Cost Average approach to accumulating the gold shares in the long term.

Central bank’s buying of gold in huge volume

The stupendous form of gold price has left many wondering if the precious metal has peaked or ready to conquer another mountain in 2026. A key driver of gold price comes from central bank’s buying of gold. According to Gold Focus 2025, central bank purchases averaged a staggering 784 tonnes. Among them, the People Bank of China (PBOC) has been consistently buying gold for 14 consecutive month as of December 2025.

Over at MAS, the central bank has increased the volume of gold held in our national reserves from 4.94 million troy ounces in December 2022 to 7.741 million troy ounces in April 2024. That was when gold price started its super bull run as it surged from US$2,378 to the current US$4,860 per troy ounce. Since April 2024, MAS has been trimming its gold reserves. As at November 2025, the amount of gold reserves has been reduced to 6.58 million troy ounces.

Back of the envelope calculation showed that MAS has made a profit of about S$2.7 billion of profit from the buying and selling of gold. Generally speaking, the MAS is very discreet when it comes to gold buying as it does not make any public announcements over the years. As such, the average gold prices at which the MAS had entered could not be accurately determined. Even though I doubt that the regulator had bought at the lowest prices, the fact that gold price had rocketed after the MAS’ buying vindicated that the purchases were very, very shrewd.

MAS’s strategy for gold is to buy low and sell high. The data for December gold reserves has not been released but I am inclined to believe that MAS has trimmed the amount of gold reserves.

One of the major factors for causing gold to rocket is the US trade tariffs. During the onset of China-US trade war in 2018, gold price has a massive rally. Prior to that, gold had remained stagnant between US$1,100 and US$1,400 for five years. In 2018, U.S. imposed 25% tariffs on steel and 10% tariffs on aluminium imports from most countries, citing national security concerns. US also slapped 25% tariffs on US$34 billion worth of Chinese imports, focusing on machinery, electronics, and auto parts and another 25% tariff on US$16 billion in Chinese goods, targeting semiconductors and chemicals.

Donald Trump’s second stint as US President has heralded sweeping trade tariffs as central of his foreign policy. Goods from all countries to US are subjected to baseline tariffs of 10%. Countries are also subjected to reciprocal tariffs, subjected to negotiations between US and various countries.

And then, there is the interest rate cuts.  The Fed has begun a cycle of rate cuts in 2025, boosting gold prices. Comments from Fed officials also signalled future cuts in 2026, thereby further fuelling gold’s rise. Gold often rises when interest rates are cut (or expected to be cut) because lower rates decrease the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding gold, making it more attractive than bonds/cash, especially during economic uncertainty or slowdowns, with recent activity showing gold rallying on Fed rate-cut hopes but sometimes pulling back if data suggests cuts are delayed.

Conclusion

The start of 2026 saw US capturing Venezuela President. To add further turmoil, US President Donald Trump threatened new tariffs on countries that opposed US takeover of Greenland. As stock investors flee for their lives, expect safe haven assets like gold and silver to rocket in the coming days.

‌Given the economic uncertainties due to the US trade tariffs, I foresee that gold price could possibly cross the historic US$6,000 milestone. At such level, it certainly requires someone with strong conviction in gold to buy gold. If you are buying physical gold, make sure to buy from a reputable bullion dealer.

In Singapore, two of the most bullion dealers are BullionStar and UOB. The main advantage of BullionStar’s (BSP) is the opportunity to convert your gold savings to physical bullion bars, produced by LBMA refineries, at any time without any extra cost whatsoever. The problem with BullionStar’s BSP is that it could not be bought using SRS. As I am looking to diversify my SRS portfolio, SPDR Gold ETF looks like a viable option to slowly accumulate gold shares that are backed by physical gold. Till then, enjoy the ride.