Foreign investors buy net Rs 560 cr on stocks

Overseas investors bought a net Rs 560 crore ($102.2 million) of Indian stocks yesterday, raising their investment in the equities this year to Rs 46,450 crore, according to the nation's market regulator.

Foreigners bought Rs 2,180 crore of shares and sold Rs 1,620 crore, the Securities & Exchange Board of India said on Wednesday. Foreign funds bought a net Rs 50.50 crore of bonds, taking total inflow into debt this year to Rs 21,760 crore, the data show.

The government on June 28 said a proposed clampdown on tax avoidance due in 2013 wouldn’t apply retrospectively or to cases below a certain monetary threshold, helping allay investor concerns. The draft guidelines released by the finance ministry on that day also proposed exempting foreign institutional investors if they refrained from routing money to India via tax shelters such as Mauritius.

Foreigners have invested Rs 4.908 lakh crore in stocks and Rs 1.425 lakh crore in bonds since they were allowed into the country in 1993. The country's $1.1 trillion stock market, Asia’s fifth-biggest, is influenced by flows from abroad.