The United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG) was the best performing ETF Wednesday, tagging on gains of 5.5 percent on expectations that supply data might show a decline in stockpiles at a time when hot-weather-induced demand for energy is on the rise.
More than 16.5 million shares of UNG traded hands Wednesday as the fund benefited from a natural gas price rally that took NYMEX gas futures for August delivery to a six-month high.
The rise in the nearby natural gas futures contract had an adverse impact on the ETRACS Natural Gas Futures Contango ETN (GASZ), which was one of the worst performing funds Wednesday, shedding 2.1 percent in value.
GASZ shorts the front-end month in a strategy that is designed to benefit from contango—a condition that usually erodes returns when investors have to pay up to roll from a cheaper expiring front-end contract to a costlier one farther into the futures curve.
Semiconductor-focused ETFs were also among the day’s top performers, with funds like the Market Vectors Semiconductor ETF (SMH) gaining 3.5 percent on the day. The Dow Jones industrial average closed 103.16 points higher, or 0.8 percent, at 12,921.94 Wednesday.
Gold miner ETFs were again some of the bottom performers, with the Global X PURE Gold Miners ETF (GGGG) leading in losses with a 3.7 percent decline. The Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX) also made the list with losses of 1.4 percent.
Top 10 1-Day Performers, Excluding Leverage/Inverse Funds and '1,000 Shares Traded
| Ticker | Name | 1-Day Performance | 1-Day Volume | AUM ($, mm) |
| UNG | United States Natural Gas | 5.56% | 16,509,553 | 1,152.81 |
| PXQ | PowerShares Dynamic Networking Portfolio | 4.79% | 57,101 | 54.44 |
| IGN | iShares S'P North American Technology-Multimedia Networking | 3.91% | 42,296 | 207.34 |
| AXHE | iShares MSCI ACWI ex-US Health Care | 3.87% | 1,100 | 8.99 |
| FUE | ELEMENTS MLCX Biofuels Total Return ETN | 3.71% | 5,243 | 2.62 |
| SMH | Market Vectors Semiconductor | 3.53% | 4,491,892 | 287.20 |
| XSD | SPDR S'P Semiconductor | 3.43% | 454,621 | 37.97 |
| SOXX | iShares PHLX SOX Semiconductor | 3.41% | 661,880 | 207.82 |
| SKYY | First Trust ISE Cloud Computing | 3.38% | 35,829 | 71.38 |
| PSI | PowerShares Dynamic Semiconductors Portfolio | 3.37% | 12,499 | 19.05 |
Bottom 10 1-Day Performers, Excluding Leverage/Inverse Funds and '1,000 Shares Traded
| Ticker | Name | 1-Day Performance | 1-Day Volume | AUM ($, mm) |
| GGGG | Global X PURE Gold Miners | -3.71% | 1,573 | 3.96 |
| TDV | db-X 2040 Target Date | -2.56% | 1,096 | 30.02 |
| GASZ | ETRACS Natural Gas Futures Contango ETN | -2.10% | 33,505 | 11.38 |
| FAA | Guggenheim Airline | -1.78% | 4,481 | 16.98 |
| PSAU | PowerShares Global Gold and Precious Metals Portfolio | -1.60% | 1,625 | 30.31 |
| CHIQ | Global X China Consumer | -1.58% | 39,312 | 102.79 |
| ICLN | iShares S'P Global Clean Energy | -1.58% | 19,325 | 25.42 |
| BTAL | QuantShares U.S. Market Neutral Anti-Beta | -1.46% | 19,900 | 30.29 |
| GDX | Market Vectors Gold Miners | -1.39% | 8,493,614 | 7,489.30 |
| IFNA | iShares FTSE EPRA/NAREIT North America | -1.36% | 2,585 | 26.65 |
Disclaimer:All data as of 6 a.m. Eastern time the date the article is published. Data is believed to be accurate; however, transient market data is often subject to subsequent revision and correction by the exchanges.
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