Uranium ETF AUM Holding Up Pretty Well, All Things Considered

To be blunt, 2011 has not been kind to the Global X Uraniu ETF URA, which made its debut late last year. The natural disasters that struck Japan in March helped force the ETF down more than 60% year-to-date, but there is a curious phenomenon going on with one of 2011's most controversial ETFs. The Global X Uranium ETF has seen inflows of about $40 million in the past six months, Barron's reported, citing Global X CEO Bruno del Ama. As of the close of trading on Sept. 26, URA had nearly $162 million in assets under management. That's down from the $200 million the fund had late last year, but all things considered, total outflows of around $40 million isn't bad in the case of URA. ''It's rather remarkable that while the share prices have been plummeting, investors have kept putting more money into the ETF than they've been pulling out,'' del Ama told Barron's. There is still something to be said for uranium's long-term fundamentals as China, India and Russia have not wavered from their plans to add nuclear capacity. URA is now trading well below its post-crisis March lows and needs to break above resistance at $10 to get chart watchers back in the game.