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Goldman Sachs is a leading global investment banking, securities and investment management firm that provides a wide range of services worldwide to a substantial and diversified client base that includes corporations, financial institutions, governments and high-net-worth individuals.

With effect from 14th July 2011, Benchmark Asset Management Company Private Limited (BAMC) and Benchmark Trustee Company Private Limited (BTC) are a part of the Goldman Sachs group. Subsequent to this acquisition, all the schemes of Benchmark Mutual Fund will be renamed. Benchmark Mutual Fund has 13 schemes in operation currently.

The popular ETFs of Benchmark Fund - Gold Bees and Nifty Bees would be renamed as GS Gold Bees and GS Nifty Bees. Hence investors need not worry too much since change in the name of the schemes will not result in any change in the basic characteristics and fundamental attributes of the schemes.

The name changes of other schemes are available here. Also during trading hours one can get the live/real time NAV of Gold Bees and Nifty Bees here at  Goldman Sachs Mutual Fund.

The buzz word now in Gold Market is E-Gold from National Spot Exchange. What's this E-Gold all about and how is this different from Gold ETFs, which are already traded in National Stock Exchange?

E-Gold is offered by National Spot Exchange Limited(NSEL) which enables you to buy gold in electronic form, and hold it in a Demat account.

Features of E-Gold:

1. You can buy and hold minimum of 1 gram of E-Gold in electronic form.

2. The commission and the transaction charges would be about 0.5%,same as you buy any other ETF from NSE.

3. E-Gold can be converted it into physical gold, which is known as re-materialization and there are charges for this re-materialization. The minimum quantity for converting into physical gold is fixed as 8 grams.

4.Rematerialization facility is currently available in 15 major cities and hence if you want to convert it to physical gold, check with your broker.

5. VAT: When you rematerialize you will have to pay some rematerialization charges (which will be in the range of Rs.150 for 8 grams), but the VAT might be a bigger amount based on how much quantity you hold.

6. The storage charges of holding gold in demat form is Rs.0.60 per unit/month.

7. The purity of e-gold is not approved by LBMA and there is no standard benchmark in domestic gold prices.

8.One can trade in gold ETFs only till 3.30 p.m., while e-gold can be traded till 11.30 p.m., providing the investors better opportunities and flexibility.

Apart from E-Gold, the other commodities available are E-Silver and E-Copper. Since no Silver ETFs are available currently, E-Silver is a better option, if anyone wants to invest in silver. And the minimum quantity is been fixed at 100 grams and the transaction charges are similar to E-Gold. You can get the live data from National Spot Exchange.

The idea behind both e-gold and gold ETFs is the same, which is relieving investors of the worry of storage and purity, making gold investment more efficient and convenient. Though E-Gold is a cost-effective for people who have a long investment horizon, investing in gold through ETFs would be more prudent for small investors.