Women investors are significantly increasing their allocations to gold ETFs in 2026, reflecting a broader move towards safe-haven assets driven by global uncertainty and diversification strategies, despite a decline in index fund holdings.
Women investors are putting a much larger share of their passive portfolios into gold, even as index funds still dominate overall allocations. According to the AMFI-Crisil Factbook 2026, gold exchange-traded funds accounted for 16.4% of women’s passive fund holdings in March 2026, up from 6.4% a year earlier. Over the same period, the share held in index funds fell to 51.1% from 68%, suggesting a clear tilt towards defensive assets.
The shift is part of a broader surge in demand for precious-metal funds. Retail investors as a whole lifted their share of gold ETF assets to 14.9% in fiscal 2026 from 4.6% in fiscal 2021, while total gold ETF assets rose to Rs 1.71 lakh crore in March 2026. AMFI chief executive Venkat Nageswar Chalasani said gold and silver mutual funds had become favoured hedging tools because they offered liquidity and diversification, reflecting a move away from purely equity-led optimism towards more measured risk management.
Crisil Intelligence president Priti Arora said gold and silver drew more inflows than equity ETFs in fiscal 2026 for the first time, helped by global uncertainty and strong precious-metal prices. Gold ETF inflows reached Rs 0.69 lakh crore in the year, more than double the combined inflows of the previous five fiscal years. The category’s share of total passive fund assets climbed to 12.5% from 5.2% a year earlier, and its five-year compound annual growth rate since March 2021 was 64.7%.
Silver has also been a major beneficiary of the move into hard assets. Assets in silver ETFs, which sit within the broader “other ETFs” category, rose 4.2 times from March 2025, boosted by higher prices, industrial demand and safe-haven buying. The momentum has not been entirely one-way, however: LiveMint reported that gold ETF inflows fell 56.9% in March, as richer equity valuations made stocks more attractive for some investors. Even so, the broader pattern remains clear, with women’s overall mutual fund assets rising to Rs 15.88 lakh crore in March 2026 from Rs 5.84 lakh crore five years earlier, showing that precious metals are gaining ground within a fast-growing investment base.
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