Betting big on Indian equities, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have put in a whopping over Rs 71,900 crore so far this year in the country's bourses, the highest ever investment made in rupee terms in a single year.
So far in 2009, overseas investors have invested a net Rs 71,979 crore (about $14.99 billion) in the local stock markets, the data available with market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) reveals.
Till now, the year 2007 attracted record investment from foreign fund houses. FIIs inflows in stock markets in 2007 stood Rs 71,486 crore.
"The trend is not surprising that Indian equity markets attracted record investment this time. A number of factors including weakening of dollar and a higher rate of return from the emerging markets have attracted the investment from FIIs," Delhi-based of Unicon Financial CEO Gajendra Nagpal said.
According to marketmen, inflows from foreign houses in the Indian stock markets will continue in coming days.
"With the government's talk on disinvestment of stake in state-run companies and the announcement of big infrastructure programmes, we see FIIs would stay long in the Indian market," a leading market analyst said.
Interestingly, the stock market benchmak Sensex has risen over 76 per cent so far this year, emerging as one of the best performers among its peers.
Significantly, last year, FIIs were net sellers of stocks worth Rs 52,900 crore and this trend continued for the first two months of current year.
With the sign of revival, the trend turned positive during March and marketmen feel that the year will close with huge inflows.
However, in dollar terms, FII inflow in the local markets reached $14.9 billion, whereas the same was at $17.6 billion in 2007, Sebi data shows.
The trend of strong FII inflows to the tune of Rs 31,000 crore ($6.3 billion) witnessed during the April-June quarter gained further during the September quarter this year and the period witnessed an infusion of hefty Rs 34,313 crore.
In debt instruments, overseas investors have made a net purchase of Rs 5,584 crore for far (at the end of trade on Monday) in the current year, as per the Sebi data.
