FIIs pour money back into Indian stock market

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have invested more than $5 billion (over Rs 25,000 crore) in Indian stock markets so far this calendar year, with as much as $3.2 billion coming since the UPA government came to power.

A little over a third of this has come in just the first nine trading days of this month — net investments were $1.15 billion (Rs 5,436 crore) on these days. Data with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) show that FIIs made net purchases worth $5.4 billion, or over Rs 25,910 crore, since the year began, with a major part of this coming in the past three months.

Between March 12 and June 9, FIIs made net investments of $7.2 billion (Rs 35,039 crore), against a net outflow of $1.8 billion (Rs 9,118 crore) till March 9. The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex has appreciated 89 per cent from 8,160.40 on March 9. It closed at 15,411.47 On Thursday.

Since the beginning of this fiscal year, FIIs have started putting money in domestic stocks, including blue-chips. In May alone, FIIs made gross purchases worth Rs 74,776 crore and sold shares worth Rs 54,659 crore, resulting in a net investment of Rs 20,117 crore ($4.1 billion).

After pulling out a record $13.1 billion (Rs 52,987 crore) from the Indian stock markets in 2008, which saw the Sensex plunging 51 per cent, FIIs turned net buyers during the last week of March.