FIIs favouring India; will keep investing: ICICI Sec

India's image as a safe investment destination has been further cemented by the post-poll stock market rally and global investors would keep coming in with huge funds during 2009, ICICI Securities' chief Madhabi Puri Buch said today.

"Market should sustain its growth momentum. The FII (foreign institutional investment) liquidity will also continue... We have a large number of FII clients and they all are very bullish about Indian market," she told PTI in a telephonic interview.

Buch noted that about 90 global funds, at a conference hosted by I-Sec in March, had said that "even if markets went down, their India allocation would be intact".

"That was the time when things were not so rosy for the stock market and there was a level of uncertainty among the investors... Despite that the funds were bullish about India," she added.

The MD and CEO of the country's top equity brokerage house said that in less than two and half months of the current fiscal, FIIs have already pumped in $6.3 billion — which is more than half of the total outflow of about $11 billion in the previous fiscal 2008-09.

"Going forward, I would say that we see continuation of FII inflow over the next 3-6 months," she said.

"The pace (of FII inflow) could slow down a bit, as the recent weeks have seen a sudden inflow of funds that had accumulated during a prolonged period of uncertainty in the run up to the elections and due to other factors," Buch said, while adding that the inflows would still continue over the coming months.

"This shows the confidence in the India growth story. It's about an across-the-board growth in our economy, spanning across all the demographics and all income-levels," she added.

"Most definitely, India would be one of the biggest destinations for FIIs. We have an added advantage of a stable financial system and regulatory framework, which have been demonstrated again by the policy makers and regulators in the recent past... Swift handling of cases like Satyam has also added to the credibility," she said.

Supported by huge FII inflow, the stock market has grown nearly 90 per cent in the past three months, thus nearly doubling the investors' wealth.

The market benchmark Sensex has surged past the 15,000- points level during this time to hit its highest level in nearly one year, thus recouping a large chunk of losses suffered since the beginning of a downward journey in January last year in tandem with a global downturn.

Asked if I-Sec was ready for the growth that was coming into its business with the market revival, Buch said, "The answer will be a resounding yes. Besides, we were confident about the revival of the upward momentum and we were ready for this." "Market was very slow in 2008-09, still we managed a net profit of Rs 520 crore and moreover our market share grew during the year, which is a big achievement. Then, we did not have to do any layoffs, like many others," Buch said.

Buch, who was appointed I-Sec Chief in February, said that she has completed more than 100 days in the office and things have changed considerably during this period.

"At the time of joining, people were asking whether it was a good decision to shift from banking business to market segment, given the state of condition of the markets at that time. But just a few weeks later, things started changing and those questions have stopped," she said.

"Besides, I-Sec has grown into a very, very important part of ICICI group. Many might not believe that market participants are actually important for the overall economy, but we do play an important role," Buch added.