 "Gold, silver ETF volumes up 5-fold in Dhanteras compared to last year")
The tradition of investing in gold and silver on Dhanteras is no longer limited to the physical form. Even the digital form of the precious metals is becoming increasingly popular.
Most mutual funds saw higher demand for their gold and silver exchange traded funds (ETFs) and fund of funds (FoFs) with the combined net inflows estimated at Rs 250 crore, as per assets under management (AUM) disclosures.
The trade volumes of gold and silver ETFs were 5 times on the NSE this year compared to the previous Dhanteras. The combined volume of the two ETFs was Rs 428 crore this year vis-a-vis Rs 89 crore in the last Dhanteras.
Gold and silver ETFs of Nippon India MF, which are the largest in the category, alone had a combined volume of Rs 228 crore.
Gold and silver ETFs and FoFs have seen a surge in interest over the past few months amid a rally in the prices of the two commodities, cut in customs duty on gold and change in taxation. The absence of new issuances of sovereign gold bonds (SGBs) also provided an advantage to the MF offerings. The net inflows into gold ETFs have remained over Rs 1,000 crore for the past three months with the total inflows at Rs 4,181 crore.