The government's continuous efforts to dissuade people to buy gold by curbing gold imports seems to have found at least one taker, if not many.
Investors buying into Gold Exchange-Traded-Funds (ETFs) appear to have taken the advice seriously. Net outflows from gold funds have touched 9-month-high in March at 87 crore as investors chose to redeem from gold ETFs.
Against a mere gross sales of Rs 38 crore, redemption request was around three times higher at Rs 125 crore during the month.
Currently, India's mutual fund sector offers 14 gold ETFs to investors. Assets under management (AUM) of gold ETFs make up around 2% of sector's overall AUM at Rs 11,648 crore as on 31 March, 2013.
Gold ETFs, which have a been a star attraction among investors during 2009 to 2012 given the fast appreciation in gold prices, failed to repeat its magic in FY13. The overall year was relatively muted compared to the previous years.
The total net inflows for the year dropped over 60% to Rs 1,414 crore against Rs 3,646 crore in FY12.
Source: business-standard.com