CRISIL launched the First Gold Index in India with a Base Date of 2 January 2007

CRISIL launched the first gold index in India on 29 August 2011. The index with a base date of 2 January 2007 will indicate returns given by gold ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds and fund of funds). The index is based on the landed price of 10g gold in Mumbai.

The gold index was launched to establish a uniform benchmark for instruments (like Exchange Traded Funds and fund of funds), with gold as an underlying investment. The index will track the performance of gold prices in the domestic market. Currently, there are 11 gold ETFs and three gold FoFs, for which fund houses calculate values on their own.

Also, the Gold Index will address a lot of inconsistencies in the market and will give an opportunity to use it as the benchmark for evaluating the performance of various gold products.

The index value will represent the rupee denominated landed price of 10 grams of gold in Mumbai and the index value for a particular day will be updated on the Crisil website at 8PM in the evening.

According to CRISIL, the average assets under management (AUM) grew from around Rs 1 billion in March 2007 to Rs 60 billion as on June 2011. Globally, AUM of Gold ETFs grew to $100 billion as on June 2011 as against $14 billion in April 2007.