Mumbai: Gold collection under India’s five exchange-traded funds (ETFs) rose by 27.5% on year to 5.02 tonnes in March, data collected from fund houses showed.

“This growth is reflective of the fact that more investors are investing in gold and now through ETFs,” said Arvind Chari, a fund manager at Quantum Mutual Fund, which offers a gold ETF.

“Going forward, the number of investors would increase due to the flexibility of investing into an ETF,” added Chari.

However, on month, gold collection fell marginally by 2.7% as investors booked profit after February’s sharp rise.

Gold futures rose to their all-time high of Rs16,040 per 10 grams on 20 February on safe-haven demand.

Though gold collections under ETFs are growing, they remain miniscule against India’s imports of about 400-800 tonnes annually.

Gold ETFs - instruments that can be traded like shares and are backed by physical gold holdings - are more than a year old and the segment may get crowded with some other funds planning to enter.