Street signs: FII buying conundrum, SBI slips in global ranking, and more

The FII buying conundrum
 
Market players have been puzzled by the daily buying and selling data of foreign institutional investors (FIIs). Despite stocks sliding, overseas investors have emerged as strong net buyers. On Friday, for instance, benchmark indices fell 1.2 per cent amid escalations of trade tensions between the US and China, yet FIIs were net buyers to the tune of over Rs 16 billion. Typically, FIIs are heavy sellers during such global risk-off events. "FIIs may be pulling out money from index heavyweight banking stocks and deploying them in non-index stocks that are now available at attractive valuations,"