FIIs invest Rs 4,800 cr in August so far

Investors seem to be unperturbed by slow growth and poor monsoon

Overseas investors seem to be unperturbed by the country's slow economic growth and weak monsoon as they pumped nearly Rs 4,800 crore into stock markets this month so far.

During August 1-10, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were gross buyers of shares worth Rs 17,544 crore, while they sold equities amounting to Rs 12,750 crore, translating into net inflows of Rs 4,794 crore, according to the data available with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

Market experts said foreign investors have sidelined concerns over weak monsoon, slowing economic growth and a high interest rate regime, mainly on hopes that government would initiate fresh reforms initiatives.

"With the government indicating a softer stance on the controversial General Anti-Avoidance Rules (GAAR) and retrospective taxation issues, many FIIs which had stayed away with the Indian equities are once again coming back to India," a stock broker said.

Another analyst Destimoney Securities MD and CEO Sudip Bandhopadhyay said, "The huge FII inflows were not driven by the country's fundamentals, its mainly because of the global factors such as ECB and the US Federal Reserve. In India, there are some concerns like weak monsoon, slowing economic growth among others."

Industrial production declined by 1.8 per cent in June mainly due to sharp dip in manufacturing and capital goods sectors, official data showed last week.

On the hand, FIIs withdrew Rs 143 crore from the debt market this month.

FIIs poured in Rs 10,273 crore in the stock market last month after a pull out of Rs 1,957 crore in the April-June quarter.

Buoyed by strong inflows, BSE's benchmark Sensex rose 321 points, or 1.8 per cent, this month so far to settle at 17,236.18 points on Friday.

After taking the latest inflows into account, FIIs investment in the equity market stood at Rs 57,060 crore so far in 2012 and Rs 24,109 crore in the debt market during the same period.

The number of registered sub-accounts has risen to 6,362 as on August 10 from 6,278 at the end of last year, while the number of registered FIIs has fallen to 1,756 from 1,767 during the same period.