Foreign Portfolio Investments (FPI) have been bullish on the Indian equities off late and a significant portion of those investments are going into finance and banking stocks. So far, during the month, net FPI inflow has surged to Rs 53,167 crore, which is reportedly the highest ever. Financial services stocks attracted a net investment of Rs 16,389 crore during the first two weeks of November, with banks receiving Rs 11,519 crore out of it while other financial stocks received net investment of Rs 4,870 crore, as per National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) data.
Capital goods, consumer durables, and oil and gas stocks followed the financial stocks in terms of FPI inflow with Rs 1,709 crore, Rs 1,532 crore and Rs 1,289 crore during the first half of November. During November 1-15, 2020, FPIs made a net investment of Rs 29,436 crore into equities in India.
FPIs made a return in October, after foreign investors made a pull-out in September. This trend is the likely to continue at least in the near term according to analysts, with high liquidity in the market post the measures announced by governments and central banks globally.
FPI is the investment made by investors from another country in securities, bonds, mutual funds, American depositary receipts (ADRs), and global depositary receipts (GDRs), etc.
Experts noted that investors are looking for yield across the world and India provides them an opportunity where the cost of capital is low and can provide relatively higher growth over the long term.
A report by Kotak Institutional Equities showed that the September 2020 quarter witnessed Rs 46,900 crore of buying by FPIs. FPI holding (including ADR and GDR) in the BSE-200 Index increased to $415 billion in the September 2020 quarter from $360 billion at the end of the June 2020 quarter.
"FPI ownership in the BSE-200 Index stood at 23.3 per cent in September 2020. FPIs were net buyers in banks, diversified financials, IT services and oil, gas and consumable fuels' sectors. DIIs holding in the BSE-200 Index declined to 13.6 per cent in the September quarter from 14 per cent at the end of the June 2020 quarter," it said.
DIIs, however, sold IT services, oil, gas and consumable fuels and pharmaceuticals sectors. Currently too, DIIs have been on a selling spree and have been net seller off late, contrary to the investments by foreign investors.