Rising gold price pushes investment in yellow metal through mutual funds

In the meantime,the Assets under management of gold ETFs jumped by 187 per cent from Rs 2,849 crore in September 2010 to Rs 8,184 crore in September 2011. The AUM stood at Rs 4,400 crore in March,2011 and has risen by 86 per cent since then.

General investment through the ETF route has also gained momentum as the number of folios in ETF investments (other than gold) rose by 109 per cent from 60,160 folios in September,2010 to 125,712 folios in September,2011. The number of folios for the entire industry stood at 4.71 crore in September,2011 up from 4.69 crore folios a year ago.

Even in the six month period between April 2011 and September 2011,the number of folios in the gold ETFs rose by 109,090 or 34 per cent.

The downslide in the number of folios in equity oriented schemes however continued during the period. Following a weak equity market performance the equity oriented schemes witnessed a fall of 5.29 lakh folios in the last one year.

The number of folios in equity oriented schemes stood at 3.86 crore in September,2011 down from 3.92 crore in September last year.

The decline was sharp in the six month period between April and September 2011 as equity oriented schemes witnessed a fall of 5.8 lakh folios during the period.

On the contrary,a rising interest rate environment made the debt oriented schemes attractive and they witnessed a jump of 14.6 per cent or 5.98 lakh folios over the last one year. The number of folios in debt schemes stood at 46.9 lakh in September,2011 as against 40.9 lakh a year ago.

During the six month period between April and September this year,the debt oriented schemes witnessed an addition of 384,241 folios.