Foreign funds invested $240 m

 Foreign funds invested $240.3 million in India in August 2003, the highest level since October 2001.

 India-dedicated country funds, set up for foreign investors to invest in India, pumped in a net $76.1 million into India in August. Another $58.3 million came from equity funds dedicated to investing in Asia (excluding Japan).

 These funds increased their holdings in Indian companies by about 9 per cent in the period, according to Emerging Portfolio.com Fund Research (EPFR). Global emerging markets (GEM) equity funds chipped in with $66 million of investments in India, with international funds accounting for the rest.

 Foreign equity fund managers tracked by EPFR ploughed in a net $2 billion into Taiwan equities this year. They have also been strong buyers of stocks in Korea and China. More than half of this new buying has taken place over the last couple of months, the EPFR says in its latest report.

 On a regional basis, fund managers have been aggressively buying Asian equities and selling Latin American stocks, according to the monthly country flows data released by EPFR.