India August ETF gold collections up at 5.712 tonnes

MUMBAI, Sept 16 (Reuters) - India's gold collections under five exchange-traded funds (ETFs) was at 5.712 tonnes, up 13.97 percent from the previous month, data from the funds showed.

Though gold collections under the ETFs are growing, they remain miniscule compared with India's gold imports of around 700 tonnes annually.

The gold ETFs -- instruments that trade like shares and are backed by physical gold holdings -- are just a year old but 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 August End July Fund

Gold *AUM Gold AUM ========================================================== Benchmark (GBES.NS: Quote, Profile, Research) 2.191 2.44 1.861 2.35

UTI (UTGF.NS: Quote, Profile, Research) 1.406 1.63 1.325 1.75

Kotak (KTGF.NS: Quote, Profile, Research) 0.407 0.45 0.341 0.44

Reliance Capital (RELE.NS: Quote, Profile, Research) 1.658 1.93 1.442 1.87