FIIs buy Sensex shares worth over $4-bn in July-Sept

Push the broader market Sensex to surge over 1,300 points or more than 7% during the period

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have raised their exposure to 24 Sensex companies, with purchase of shares worth an estimated amount of more than $4 billion, in the last quarter ended September 30.

On the other hand, the FII holding declined in six blue-chips companies during the July-September 2012 quarter, shows the shareholding pattern of 30 Sensex companies.

Most of the foreign entities trade in Indian stocks through FII route and market analysts said that the overseas investors appear to have been enthused by the stability in the equity market during the last quarter.

As per the current market value of the Sensex companies, the FIIs are estimated to have purchased shares worth about Rs 23,500 crore ($4.3 billion) in 24 Sensex companies during the last quarter.

At the same time, the FIIs are estimated to have sold shares worth about Rs 1,300 crore in six other Sensex companies - resulting in a net investment of over Rs 22,000 crore ($4.2 billion) in all the Sensex firms together.

FIIs infused a net amount of about Rs 40,000 crore in the entire Indian stock market in July-September quarter on the back of a slew of reforms initiated by the government, pushing the broader market Sensex to surge over 1,300 points or more than 7% during the period.

Among the Sensex firms, FIIs raised their stake in HDFC, HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, Infosys, ICICI Bank, Larsen & Toubro, SBI, Cipla, GAIL, BHEL and Mahindra & Mahindra during July-September 2012 quarter.

Besides, they also raised their holdings in Sun Pharma, Tata Power, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, ITC, HUL, Hindalco, Jindal Steel & Power Ltd, Maruti, Bajaj Auto, ONGC in the quarter under review.

In contrast, foreign investors have reduced their holding in Wipro, Bharti Airtel, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Hero MotoCorp, NTPC and Coal India.

Interestingly, shareholding of overseas institutional investors in HDFC has risen to 68.72% - the highest level in five-and-a-half years - up from 66.74% at the end of previous quarter.

The largest rise in FII ownership was recorded by drug maker Cipla, followed by auto giant M&M. In Cipla, overseas investors hiked their stake by 2.71 percentage points to 20.79% at the end of September quarter, wherein their holding rose by 2.42 percentage points to 30% in M&M.

The maximum decline in FII stake was also witnessed in a pharma company, Dr Reddy's Laboratories. The FIIs pared their stake in Dr Reddy's by 1.35 percentage points to 24.52%, followed by a decline of 0.87 percentage points in Hero MotoCorp holding to 32.34%.