Gold ETF inflows double MoM to ₹24,040 crore in January, surpass equities

Investors poured money into gold ETFs (exchange traded funds) in January 2026 at a brisk pace, showed the latest data from Association of Mutual Funds of India (AMFI), with their net inflow into this category hitting nearly Rs 24,039.96 crore. This is double the amount invested in this category during December 2025.

 

The January inflow in Gold ETFs exceeded – albeit by a whisker – the net investment in ‘growth/equity-oriented’ schemes in January, which stood at Rs 24,028.59 crore, AMFI data showed.

 

Combined with index funds, gold and other ETFs, and fund of funds (FoF) investing overseas, the total amount investors poured into the ‘other schemes’ category as per AMFI data, stood at Rs 39,954.63 crore in January 2026. READ MORE ABOUT IT HERE 

 

 

Experts attribute the sharp rise in investment into gold ETFs to investor’s need for ‘safe-haven’ assets, and the willingness to diversify beyond equities amid geopolitical developments.

 

“The recent rise in gold and silver has led to a sharp increase in demand for gold & silver ETFs as investors look for different avenues to gain exposure to precious metals. However, equities continue to remain the preferred asset class for investment from a long-term wealth creation point of view,” said A Balasubramanian, managing director & chief executive officer at Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC.

 

By severely under-allocating to large-caps, believes Vikas Gupta, CEO and chief investment strategist at OmniScience Capital, investors have missed the opportunity to gain from the significantly mispriced large-cap financial and other stocks. Investors, he said, continued allocating to Gold ETFs at significantly elevated gold prices which might turn out to be a mistake in the long-term. 

 

"However, it was heartening to see the large equity allocation going to flexi-caps, which gives the fund managers the capital to allocate to the mispriced stocks, including in large-caps or other segments. Multi-asset funds continue attracting more capital than flexi-caps, showing that investor behaviour turns more cautious exactly when the opportunity is the highest in equities, demonstrating recency bias, reacting to past returns rather than future expected returns of asset classes” Gupta said. 

The flows into gold ETFs in January 2026, according to Saugata Chatterjee, President & Chief Business Officer, Nippon India Mutual Fund, suggests investors are keeping gold as part of portfolios—both as a long-term allocation and as a hedge—while steadily increasing the use of transparent, market-linked products.

 

While domestic and global cues can keep markets volatile in the near term, Chatterjee remains positive on India’s long-term growth prospects and the continued financialisation of household savings. "For retail investors, the right approach is to stay diversified, match products to time horizon, and continue systematic investing rather than reacting to short-term market noise," he said.