Foreign investors have made net inflows of a staggering nearly Rs 80,000 crore in the Indian stocks during the current fiscal year, while they pulled out money from the debt market.
However, the net inflows are lower than Rs 1,40,033 crore had been made by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) in the past fiscal.
During the current fiscal year 2013-14, FIIs have pumped in net amount of Rs 79,709 crore in the equity market, according to data available with Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
This was the fifth consecutive fiscal year inflows by foreign investors after pulling out a net amount of Rs 47,706 crore from the share market in 2008-09.
Despite their unpredictable ‘hot money’ investment, these overseas entities have been amongst the most important drivers of Indian stock markets.
The huge inflows came despite the number of FIIs registered in India dipping to 1,710 in this fiscal year from 1,757 at the end of March 31, 2012.
However, FIIs have kept away from the debt market and pulled out net sum of over Rs 28,000 crore during the fiscal year in the segment due to weakness in the Indian currency.
In the 2012-13, overseas investors had pumped in nearly Rs 28,334 crore in the debt securities.
Since opening up of Indian markets for FIIs in 1992, they have made a cumulative net investment of Rs 7.08 lakh crore in shares and withdrew Rs 1.4 lakh crore from the debt segment.
According to market analysts, foreign investors invested hugely in the domestic equities markets in 2013-14 because Indian equity markets gave one of the best returns among the emerging countries.
Destimoney Securities MD and CEO Sudeep Bandhopadhyay said, “FIIs are expected to be bullish on Indian stocks in 2014, despite the US Federal’s decision on tapering,”
“Overseas investors are looking forward to a stable government that can move reforms process faster, irrespective of which political party comes to power at the Centre,” he added.
FIIs began the financial year on a positive note and infused more than Rs 26,000 crore in the first two months of the current fiscal on the back of various reforms initiated by the government.
However, overseas investors became net sellers of equities between June and August as the US Federal Reserve’s announced that it would taper its quantitative easing strategy.
FIIs, once again flocked towards Indian stocks and bought bagful of stocks in September as RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan announced slew of measures to boost the weakening rupee and revive economic growth. After that the inflows continued till the fiscal year-end.
The momentum of fund inflow in stocks picked up in the month of March on hopes that BJP-led government will come in power in general elections starting next month.
Many market experts expect a BJP-led government would be more pro-reform and speed up legislative steps needed to spur economic growth.
According to market experts, FIIs preferred sectors like software, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology; financial services and food, beverages and tobacco among others.
As per SEBI data, the total number of registered FIIs dropped to 1,710 as on March 28 from 1,757 in the last fiscal year.
Also, the number of registered sub-accounts pegged at 6,344 against 6,335 in 2012-13. The sub-accounts include foreign firms, individuals and institutions on whose behalf FIIs make those investments.
