| The tide seems to be turning if the foreign funds flow data in the first week of October are anything to go by. Foreign investors have taken out over $1100 million from major Asian markets, dragging all key regional indices down. |
| While high international oil prices and rising US interest rates were weighing heavy on the minds of global investors, high stock valuations in the region were making global investors pull back, said a dealer with a foreign broking firm. |
| All Asian markets have seen stock prices retreat as foreign funds have been on a selling spree. Among the key markets, South Korea has seen the highest outflow of $915 million, followed by Thailand at $150 million and India at $214 million. |
| Investments in the Philippines and Indonesia have been flat while Taiwan is the only exception in the Asian basket with net inflows of $144 million. |
| "Most emerging markets have run up quite a bit and investors may be looking to take home some profits," said Andrew Holland, executive vice-president (research), DSP Merrill Lynch. Investors were expecting a faster liquidity tightening and that meant flows could slow down, he added. |
| Most of these markets are in the red this month. Thailand has been among the biggest losers with the MSCI Thailand Index losing 2.58 per cent. MSCI India lost 1.73 per cent while South Korea was down 1.93 per cent. |
| However, smaller markets are somewhat insulated. MSCI Pakistan has been the biggest gainer, up 4.66 per cent. The Philippines, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, too, have been up more than 1 per cent. |
| Even though foreign investors pulled out of other major emerging markets in |
| September, there were major buyers in Indian equities. Foreign investors accounted for $1.08 billion of net inflows last month. But they took out $890 million from South Korea and $317 from Taiwan. However, Thailand had seen positive flows of $316 during the same period. |
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