A risk-off sentiment among mutual fund investors has prompted inflows in gold ETFs to surpass those of equity funds for the first time in January.
Data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) released on Tuesday shows that inflows into gold ETFs during January 2026 were ₹24,039.96 crore, doubling from December 2025, while inflows into all equity funds stood at ₹24,028.59 crore, falling by 14.4 per cent from December.
The assets under management (AUM) of Gold ETF funds increased to ₹1,84,276.96 crore. Silver ETF funds saw an inflow of ₹9,463.4 crore during the month, taking the AUM to ₹1,16,727 crore.
Inflows into flexi cap funds were ₹7,672.36 crore, comprising 32 per cent of the overall inflows into equity funds. Similarly, within hybrid schemes, multi-asset allocation funds saw an inflow of ₹10,485.38 crore, comprising 60.5 per cent of the overall inflows into the category.
Market observers said this trend signifies diversification intent from the investors in a volatile market, driven by global geopolitics, prospects of a hawkish Fed chair, persistent FII outflows from India and commodity price fluctuations.
Debt funds saw an inflow of ₹74,827 crore during January, primarily led by ₹46,280.05 crore inflows into overnight funds and ₹30,681.55 crore inflows into liquid funds.
“Equity inflows remained positive for the 59th consecutive month, while SIP contributions stayed largely stable. Flows into hybrid, multi-asset and passive products — including increased allocation in gold and silver ETFs suggested a measured approach from investors towards diversification and portfolio balance,” said Venkat Chalasani, chief executive, AMFI.
“Investors have diversified their incremental flows from equities into precious metals, given the return profile over recent times. Higher flows into liquid funds also suggest investors are parking money in cash for STPs or transferring into equities at an appropriate time,” said Akhil Chaturvedi, ED and CBO, Motilal Oswal Asset Management Company.
“Due to high valuations, sluggish corporate results, uncertainty that prevailed surrounding trade agreements with the US in January, currency depreciation and ongoing FII selling, Indian benchmarks (Sensex and Nifty) have recently underperformed the MSCI developing market index by a significant margin of 20 per cent plus,” said Viraj Gandhi, CEO, Samco Mutual Fund. With gold and silver prices rallying, Gandhi said that record flow in ETF funds is reflected in the performance chasing from investors.
“Precious metals continue to shine with Gold ETF flows in January having doubled over December. A ripple effect of this is also seen in the multi-asset category, where investors have tried to diversify their asset allocation. This category has benefitted from increased investor interest in precious metals,” said Anand Vardarajan, chief business officer, Tata Asset Management.
SIP assets under management were ₹16.36 lakh crore in January, with contributions of ₹31,002.33 crore.
The net asset under management of the mutual fund industry was ₹81.01 lakh crore, marginally up from ₹80.23 lakh crore in December.
