NSE trades gold ETFs worth record Rs 636 cr on Dhanteras

Mumbai, Oct 24 (PTI) The auspicious occasion of Dhanteras today pushed up the trading in gold ETFs, which allow purchase and sale of the yellow metal in electronic format, with the leading bourse NSE alone clocking a record daily volume of Rs 636.04 crore. Today's trade value in gold ETFs was nearly 7 times of the daily average of Rs 92 crore at the NSE last month. The gold ETFs track the gold prices and each unit of these ETFs is generally equivalent to one gram of gold. The 11 gold ETFs listed at the bourses today appreciated in the range of 1.1 per cent to 2.5 per cent. While the figures were not immediately available for the BSE, the another bourse where gold ETFs are traded, a total of 24.61 lakh units of gold ETFs were traded at the NSE for a total record value of Rs 636.04 crore by 2000hrs. In September, NSE recorded a daily trade value of Rs 92 crore, while the average number of daily trades was 23,874. The two bourses had extended the trading in gold ETFs till 2000hrs today, as against a normal closing at 1530 hrs, on the occassion of Dhanteras, when it is considered auspicious to buy valuables like gold. The BSE and the NSE had also waived off the transactions charges for all trades in gold ETFs on this day to cash upon the investor demand for yellow metal on the auspicius day. Quantum Mutual Fund's fund manager Chirag Mehta said that the response has been pretty good for gold ETFs today. He said that gold ETFs have gained ground as an investment option and a lot of people were preferring ETFs over the physical gold.