Dallas, Texas 02/10/2014 (FINANCIALSTRENDS) – The $7.88 billion market capped exchange traded fund, Energy Select Sector SPDR (ETF) (NYSEARCA:XLE) has posted 1.58 percent gains over the last two days of trading last week. This jump in the prospects of this stock which bench marks its returns and yield against the performance of the Energy Select Sector Index was in line with the overall gains recorded by the oil sector over the last few weeks as unseasonal and extreme cold weather has driven the demand for oil and energy products to record peaks at this time of the year, as compared to previous years.
The Energy Select Sector Index which tracks the performance of companies in the “oil, gas, consumable fuels, and energy equipment and services” sector had posted 1.06 percent increase over the past week. Energy Select Sector SPDR (ETF) (NYSEARCA:XLE) which has retained the services of SSgA Funds Management, Inc as its in house advisor has managed to generate results which are ahead of its bench mark, thanks to the equity market prices gaining, even as the cold weather continued to dictate higher than average price for energy products like oil and gas.
The spot price of oil has gone up by 2.78 percent to a quarter high of $110.17 per barrel in U.S. The spot price of natural gas went down by 2.3 percent on the contrary to $4.77 per cubic foot. These prices dictated the performance of the respective ETF. The United States Oil Fund ETF (NYSEARCA:USO) went up by 2.41% while United States Natural Gas ETF (NYSEARCA:UNG) went down by 2.32%. The dip in price of gas has been linked to oversupply in the U.S markets at this stage.
The prevailing demand and pricing of energy products has led the investor community to predict that over the next few weeks, the sector is well placed to carry on the forward march as the uncommon cold weather front is expected to persist.
