Information technology and telecommunications are foreign institutional investors' (FIIs) favourite sectors for equity investments in India, while financial institutions (FIs) are hot on finance and infrastructure.
These observations are based on the shareholding pattern of the National Stock Exchange-listed (NSE) 790 companies as on end-June, published in a report "Indian Securities Market - A Review 2001".
The study shows that FIIs hold a marginal 4.6 per cent of the total equity capital of 790 companies. The sectoral participation of FIIs shows that they have a clear favourite in information technology firms, in which their holding is 14.5 per cent, followed by 13.7 per cent in telecom firms.
On the other hand, the order for FIs comprises finance companies, in which FIs exposure stands at 18.3 per cent, followed by infrastructure at 15.8 per cent. FIs holding in telecom firms stands at 9.9 per cent and pharmaceuticals 8.7 per cent.
The financial institutions investments in media companies are minimal at 0.29 per cent of the sectors equity base followed by information technology companies at 1.27 per cent.
Mutual funds holding has been equally spread out in sectors such as telecommunication, pharmaceutical, infrastructure, information technology, petrochemicals and manufacturing.
For mutual funds too, media firms are of little interest as their holding in media firms stands at 1.1 per cent.
It is the private corporate bodies which have taken major exposure in media firms by cornering 62 per cent of the sector's equity base.
The Indian public holding accounts for 17.5 per cent of the aggregate 790 companies' equity base. The public holding has been concentrated in the fast moving consumer goods sector (FMCG), sharing 33.8 per cent of the sectors equity base, followed by media at 26.5 per cent and services at 22.4 per cent.
While broad classification of the aggregate equity holding of the 790 firms reveals that non-promoters holding accounts for 51.6 per cent followed by Indian promoters sharing 39.7 per cent and foreign promoters having 5.4 per cent.
