ETF Movers & Shakers: Silver, Gold, Defence ETFs Slide as Broader Market Sinks; Banks, IT Buck the Trend

New Delhi, Sept 11: The Indian ETF market told a starkly different story on Friday compared with earlier in the week, as a sharp, broad-based selloff across Indian equities dragged nearly every commodity and thematic ETF into the red. Silver, gold, defence and energy ETFs, all of which had been standout performers in recent sessions, reversed sharply lower, while a handful of banking and IT-linked ETFs quietly bucked the trend. 

Perhaps the biggest theme to highlight today is just how uniform the reversal has been. Where silver ETFs led gains earlier in the week and gold lagged, both metals are now falling in tandem, with silver once again the sharper mover, only this time on the way down. The trigger is straightforward: the Sensex and Nifty both opened sharply lower on Friday, extending a selloff that has been building since Thursday, as an escalating Iran-Houthi conflict and oil prices holding above $100 a barrel spooked investors across asset classes, not just equities. 

Silver ETFs reverse sharply lower 

Silver ETFs are among the biggest losers on the board on Friday, a sharp reversal from their recent rally. SilverAdd fell 3.15% to Rs 21.84, while GroWW Silver dropped 3.05% to Rs 22.22, ESilver declined 3.07% to Rs 226.12, and HDFC Silver ETF slid 3.01% to Rs 216.81. SilverBeES, the largest and most liquid silver ETF by traded value, was down 2.92% to Rs 217, with SBI Silver ETF (-2.91%), Tata Silver ETF (-2.82%) and Silver iETF (-2.85%) all posting similarly steep declines. Virtually every silver ETF on the list ended lower, a complete about-turn from the broad-based buying seen earlier in the week. The scale of Friday’s decline is a reminder that silver’s rally, while powerful, has also made the metal more volatile than gold on both the way up and the way down, a pattern playing out clearly in today’s price action. 

Gold ETFs slip, but less steeply than silver 

Gold ETFs also fell on Friday, though the declines were comparatively milder than silver’s. GoldBees, the most heavily traded gold fund, dropped 0.71% to Rs 125.30, while Tata Gold ETF eased 0.67% to Rs 14.73 and SETFGOLD fell 0.90% to Rs 129.09. HDFC Gold ETF and Goldietf both declined around 0.8%, while eGold was among the sharper decliners in the category, down 1.08% to Rs 150.95. The relatively smaller drop in gold compared with silver suggests investors are treating gold as the more defensive of the two metals even as broader risk-off sentiment takes hold. 

Defence ETFs give back recent gains 

Defence-themed ETFs, the standout performers just a few sessions ago, also slipped into the red on Friday. Motilal Oswal’s Nifty India Defence ETF fell 0.76% to Rs 106.80, while Groww’s defence offering declined 0.28% to Rs 97.69, and the BSE India Defence-tracking ETF eased 0.44% to Rs 81.99. The pullback suggests some profit-booking in a segment that had rallied sharply on geopolitical risk premiums in recent weeks, even as the underlying Middle East conflict shows no signs of easing. 

Energy and Liquid ETFs 

Energy-linked ETFs also traded lower on Friday, a break from their recent correlation with rising crude prices. The Nifty Energy ETF fell 0.36% to Rs 38.28, while Motilal Oswal’s energy offering declined 0.39% to Rs 38, and Aditya Birla’s energy ETF eased 0.63%. Liquid ETFs, as always, stayed anchored near their fixed-unit NAVs, with LiquidBees flat and most peers moving within a few basis points, reaffirming their role as a steady cash-parking option through Friday’s volatility. 

Banks and IT quietly buck the trend 

Amid the broader selloff, a handful of banking and technology ETFs stood out as rare bright spots. Nifty Private Bank ETF (PVTBANIETF) rose 1.34%, BankBees gained 0.67%, and SETFNIFBK added 0.70%, even as the broader market fell sharply. IT-linked ETFs also edged higher, with ITBees up 0.59% and ITiETF up 0.97%, a modest but notable divergence from Friday’s otherwise one-sided selling. Traders tracking these moves will likely read them as a sign that some rotation is underway, with select financial and technology names attracting bargain-hunting even as commodity and thematic ETFs bear the brunt of the day’s risk-off mood. 

ETF Snapshot: Silver, Gold, Defence, Liquid 

Source

• https://www.nseindia.com/market-data/exchange-traded-funds-etf
• Silver’s steep reversal, gold’s milder slide, and defence’s pullback all point to broad risk-off selling, even as select banking and IT ETFs quietly held their ground.