FIIs richer by Rs 6,000 crore

Foreign institutional investors (FII) have struck paydirt in the current market rally. They've become richer by almost Rs 6,000 crore.

The market value of FIIs' investments in 408 key Indian companies appreciated by 11.04 per cent (Rs 5,948 crore), from Rs 53,853 crore on June 30, 2003 to Rs 59,800 crore on August 14.

As a result, FIIs have been able to beat the benchmark index, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex, which gained 8.71 per cent in the same period.

In value terms, FIIs reported the highest gain of Rs 774 crore on their investments in Reliance Industries' shares.

They held 16.31 per cent of Reliance's equity at the end of June 2003 and the market value of these investments increased from Rs 7,393 crore on June 30 to Rs 8,167 crore on August 14, assuming they held on to the portfolio last decalred on June 30.

The Reliance share price went up by 10.47 per cent, from Rs 324.60 to Rs 358.60, between June 30 and August 14.

The second-highest profit came from their investments in housing finance major HDFC. FIIs earned a profit of Rs 608 crore as the market value of their HDFC holdings went up from Rs 5,344 crore to Rs 5,953 crore. On June 30, the FIIs held 53.68 per cent of the equity holding of the company.

FII investments in Infosys Technologies got them the third-largest gains. They raked in Rs 408 crore in (notional) profits, as the market value of their holdings increased from Rs 8,652 crore to Rs 9,060 crore.

As the price of the Zee Telefilms' stock rose by 33.52 per cent, from Rs 88.15 on June 30 to Rs 117.70 on August 14, FIIs that held on to their holdings were Rs 359 crore richer. The market value of their investments surged from Rs 1,070 crore to Rs 1,429 crore.

FIIs also gained substantially by the market value of the State Bank of India (Rs 282 crore), Tata Engineering (to be renamed Tata Motors, (Rs 278 crore), Ranbaxy Laboratories (Rs 224 crore), Grasim Industries (Rs 189 crore) and Hindalco (Rs 176 crore) shotting up.

However, in another 107 companies the market value of the FII holdings dropped by Rs 240 crore, from Rs 11,498 crore to Rs 11,257 crore.

These companies include Dr Reddy's Laboratories (Rs 52 crore), NIIT (Rs 35 crore), Moser Baer (Rs 32 crore), Wipro (Rs 20 crore), Hindustan Lever (Rs 18 crore) and Mastek (Rs 13 crore).