Investors are betting on a surge in electric car sales after indications that China, the world’s largest market for the vehicles, may soon wind down production and sales of cars using fossil fuel.
From the time China’s state-run Xinhua newspaper reported the news on Sept. 11 through Tuesday’s close, investors poured about $143 million into the Global X Lithium & Battery Tech exchange-traded fund (LIT), according to ETF.com. Tuesday alone drew $49.8 million in inflows, nearly 10 percent of the now $651 million fund.
That kind of interest in an ETF, especially one so narrowly focused, is “extremely rare,” said Todd Rosenbluth, director of ETF and mutual fund research at CFRA. “A really strong 2017 has triggered strong investor interest at a time when a lot of money is going into well diversified and cheap ETFs.”
“Interest has really accelerated, really since the Chinese announcement came out,” said Jay Jacobs, director of research and vice president at Global X Funds. “What’s driving it is we’ve hit a clear inflection point in lithium demand.”
Jacobs noted the cost of a lithium battery has halved over the last three years, making electric vehicles cheaper for consumers. Meanwhile, China is the latest in a string of major governments to move toward electric cars.
For the rest of this article: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/21/investors-betting-on-electric-cars-send-millions-into-lithium-etf.html