FIIs invest Rs 22,000 cr into Indian equities in Jan

This was the seventh straight quarter of net investment by FIIs starting July 2012

Overseas investors pumped in a staggering Rs 22,000 crore ($4 billion) in the Indian stock market in January, the seventh consecutive month of inflows.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were gross buyers of shares worth Rs 77,859 crore, while they sold equities amounting to Rs 55,800 crore translating into a net inflow of Rs 22,059 crore ($4.05 billion), according to Sebi data.

This was the seventh straight quarter of net investment by FIIs in the Indian equities market starting July, 2012.

Market analysts attributed huge inflows into Indian equities to a slew of measures taken by the government, including the postponement of GAAR implementation by two years to April 1, 2016 and partial decontrol in diesel prices.

Additionally, easing of interest rate by Reserve Bank has also attracted foreign investors.

Another major reason for fund inflow was passage of 'fiscal cliff' bill by the US Senate that delays the automatic spending cuts by two months and proposed raising of taxes on individuals earning more than $400,000 a year and households making more than $450,000.

Apart from equities, FIIs have invested Rs 2,947 crore in the debt market in January.

So far in 2013, FIIs pumped in Rs 23,101 crore ($4.25 billion) in the Indian equities and poured in Rs 3,639 crore in the debt market.

The strong buying by FIIs pushed the benchmark Sensex by 355 points or 1.82% so far this year to settle at 19,781.19 points.

In 2012, FIIs had made net investment of Rs 1.28 lakh crore ($24.4 billion) in Indian equities, making it the second best year for the market after a record inflow of Rs 1.33 lakh crore ($29 billion) in 2010.

As on February 1, the number of registered FIIs in the country stood at 1,761 and total number of sub-accounts were 6,333.