FII inflows in Dec top Rs 6,000 crore

The inflow of foreign funds in December 2003 crossed Rs 6,000 crore yesterday at Rs 6,030 crore. This is more than double the foreign fund inflow in the last eight Decembers since 1995.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have pumped Rs 5,450.4 crore into the Indian equity market so far this month (as on December 26), compared with Rs 2,455 crore in the last eight Decembers.

The rest of the money has been invested in the debt market, taking the total figure to Rs 6,030 crore.

Total FII inflows in 2003 have crossed $7.5 billion (Rs 34,802 crore), which is more than one-third of the total foreign fund flow at Rs 93,751.3 crore in the Indian market so far, according to data released by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).

Jitendra Panda, vice-president, Motilal Oswal Securities, says: "The market was circumspect at the beginning of the month, considering that all past trends pointed to FIIs pulling out money for year-end distribution at home. But this year, FII inflows have been the highest in December so far." He said this was a fair indication of the bullish undertone in the Indian equity market and FII inflows in 2004.