December 2025 Monthly Performance Survey
HIGHLIGHTS
The impact of the current commodity price upcycle shows up clearly in the latest release of the Monthly Performance data for ETPs and index tracking unit trusts for the year ended December 2025.
A bottom of the commodity price cycle was reached about 10 years ago and since 2021, a new growth cycle in commodity prices has been underway. Originally led by gold, but recently joined by PGM metals and certain other base metals, the impact on the tracker funds following the US dollar price of global metals, has been significant.
Notably, the best kept secret is the outperformance of silver. Initially trading in the shadows of gold, the past 6 months have seen a dramatic improvement in the price of this metal – from US$ 34 per ounce last June, silver now trades at US$ 76 per ounce. 10 years ago, it was trading at US$ 12 per ounce.
The impact of coming off this low base, is shown by silver heading up the top performance tables for 3 years and most periods earlier than this. It also shows up well in the 5 and 10 year performance tables.
There is only one easy way to access investment in the global silver price on the JSE and that is through the Absa NewWave Silver ETN. This product has now been listed for the past 15 years on the JSE, but it has only come into prominence more recently. Its market capitalisation was still only R1.7 billion at the end of 2025, but that is up by 210% on its market capitalisation of R548 million at the end of 2024. To put this into context, the Absa NewGold ETF has a market capitalisation of over R38 billion and is the largest market cap ETF listed on the JSE by some margin.
Another well hidden secret is the 1nvest Rhodium ETF, which heads up the 10 year performance history, with a growth rate of 30.4% per annum over this period. This has also shot up recently, rising from US$ 5 400 per ounce in June 2025 to a current level of US$ 9 850 per ounce. This is still well below its past peak of US$ 30 000 per ounce, reached in August 2021.
The 1nvest Rhodium ETF is also lightly traded, but its market capitalisation has increased from R140 million at the end of 2024 to R1 668 million at the end of 2025, so it is finding some investor support.
Platinum and other PGM metals have also shown sharp price rises since mid-2025, but the fundamentals for these metals seem sound and it is not impossible that further price increases in the PGM ETFs can be experienced.
As an offshoot of the commodity price recovery, the Satrix RESI 10 ETF, which now consists mainly of SA gold and platinum mines, has been the best performing ETF on the JSE over the past year, rising by 142% in the past 12 months.
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