Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) have increased stakes marginally in 16 Sensex firms including Larsen & Toubro, Hindustan Unilever, Infosys and ITC, during the June quarter this fiscal.
The data available on the shareholding pattern of Sensex companies revealed that FIIs have consolidated holding in over half of the blue chip firms and reduced exposure in 14 of them such as Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, HDFC, State Bank of India during the quarter.
The rise in FII stakes is not very significant as they have consolidated holdings by over 1% in only two companies -- engineering major Larsen & Toubro and FMCG major Hindustan Unilever.
L&T witnessed the highest increase of about 1.26% in foreign holdings to 16.44% during the quarter from 15.18% in the previous quarter.
FII holding in HUL rose by around 1.09% to 18.35% during the quarter, from 17.26% in the March quarter.
Meanwhile, the Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share index, Sensex, had soared 2.16% or 399.37 points during the quarter to close at 18,845.87 on June 30. That was a big 10.71% drop from its November high of 21,108.64 points.
Mirroring the volatility in the global economy, FIIs were not very consistent while investing in the Indian market.
In April they invested Rs 7,213.3 crore in the equity market, while they took out Rs 6,614.40 crore in May. In June they again infused Rs 4,572.20 crore, according to the data of the stock market regulator Sebi.
Besides, L&T and HUL, the blue chips in which FIIs increased their stakes include IT major Infosys - by 0.76%, conglomerate ITC (0.52%), auto major Mahindra and Mahindra (0.65%), leading two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp (0.88%), HDFC Bank (0.7%), country's largest IT firm TCS (0.16%), telecom firm Bharti Airtel (0.36%), state-run ONGC (0.39%), BHEL (0.17%) and Coal India (0.28%).
FII holding in firms like NTPC, Sterlite Industries,Sun Pharma and Tata Power increased marginally in the range of 0.1 to 0.07%.
FIIs have however reduced their stake in heavyweights such as Reliance Industries by 0.33%, ICICI Bank (0.01%), HDFC (0.51%), State Bank of India (1.92%) and Tata Steel (0.3%).
Other companies that witnessed reduction in FII stake include -- Tata Motors (0.62%), Jindal Steel (0.41%), Wipro (0.01%), Bajaj Auto (0.19%), Hindalco (0.08%), Maruti (0.52%), Cipla (0.53%), DLF (0.82%) and Jaiprakash (1.42%).
The average holding of FIIs in Sensex companies for the June quarter stood at 19.685% a tad above the March quarter average.
