India June ETF gold creeps up, helped by weak stocks

MUMBAI, July 4 (Reuters) - India's gold collections under five exchange-traded funds crept up in June with weak stocks and a broad shift to the commodities asset class attracting new investments into the metal, fund managers said.

Total gold collection at the end of June was at 4.76 tonnes, up from 4.57 tonnes in May, data from the ETFs showed. The figure was the highest ever since ETFs were launched last year.

"Stocks are seeing a lot of liquidation, which in turn is leading to a search for a safe haven," said Abhishek Bisen, fund manager at Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Co Ltd.

"More people are likely to come into gold ETFs."

India's gold ETFs -- instruments that trade like shares and are backed by physical gold holdings -- may get crowded with some other funds planning an entry.

The following table shows ETFs' gold holdings in metric tonnes and their value in billion rupees:

End June End May

Fund Gold *AUM Gold AUM ============================================================

Benchmark (GBES.NS: Quote, Profile, Research) 1.684 2.00 1.503 1.78