It is not just domestic IT giants and other heavyweight blue-chips that are attracting overseas investors on Dalal Street, banking stocks are also finding favour with them and have gone further up on their radar over the past one year.Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) as well as domestic mutual funds (MFs) have increased their stake in most of the public and private sector banks over the past one year, an analysis of their shareholding pattern shows.According to the latest available data with the stock exchanges, of the 18 banks listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange's Bankex index, FIIs have increased their stake in 15 stocks, while their stake has gone down marginally in the remaining three banks.Taking cues from FIIs, domestic MFs have also raised their holding in 11 banks, while their stake has gone down in just seven banks during the same period.Banks like ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, UTI Bank, Bank of Baroda, Andhra Bank, Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank and Karnataka Bank have seen both FIIs and MFs raising their stake over the past one year.Contrary to the popular perception that IT companies are the favourite of FIIs, the banking sector has also emerged as a lucrative investment destination for overseas investors boosted by ever expanding corporate and consumer financing avenues available to the banks.
