India's gold collection under exchange-traded funds rose a marginal 1.1 percent on month to 5.39 tonnes in January, when domestic gold touched a record high, data from the funds showed. "It (the collections) is stable... more or less stagnant," said Arvind Chari, fund manager with Quantum Mutual Fund. "Investors are expected to increasingly shift to paper gold due to impurity issues of physical gold," said Chari, adding paper gold would provide them a "safe and convenient way of investing." Gold futures on the continuation charts MAUc1 rose to a record high of 14,490 rupees on Jan. 30 as investors sought refuge in the safe-haven asset and further supported by a weaker rupee. Though gold collections under ETFs are growing, they remain miniscule against India's imports of 700 tonnes annually. Gold ETFs -- instruments that can be traded like shares and are backed by physical gold holdings -- are more than a year old and the segment may get crowded with some other funds planning to enter.

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