Global exchange traded funds minimised effect of FII sell-off: Report

The year 2018 was lacklustre for Indian markets in terms of foreign institutional investor (FII) flows. Overseas investors pulled out around $4.5 billion from domestic stocks last year. Bulk of the outflow was on account of selling by India-dedicated active and exchange traded funds (ETFs), shows data provided by flow tracking firm EPFR and Kotak Institutional Equities. If not for inflows from emerging market funds, the net FII selling could have been higher. India received $1.6 billion worth of inflows from global emerging market (GEM) ETFs and another half a billion dollars through ETFs based on global and Asia Pacific indices, the data shows. Total inflows into all the emerging markets via GEM ETFs were around $35 billion. Experts say most of the GEM ETF flows go into large-cap shares. Meanwhile, actively managed global funds aggressively pulled out from mid-cap stocks. In 2018, the benchmark Nifty had gained 3 per cent, while the Nifty Midcap 100 and Smallcap 100 indices declined 15 per cent and 29 per cent, respectively.