India focused offshore funds, ETFs witness net inflows of $565 mn in Nov

This marked the highest investment since June, when such funds had received net inflows to the tune of $738 million

India-focussed offshore funds and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) witnessed net inflows of $565 million in November and helped the overall tally to reach nearly $6.5 billion in 2017, reflecting confidence of overseas investors in Indian markets.

In comparison, these funds had seen a pull out of $674 million in November last year, according to a report by Morningstar.

Offshore India funds - not domiciled in India - receive flow from overseas investors and in turn, invest the money in Indian markets.

India-focussed offshore funds and ETFs are a subset of the overall foreign portfolio investor (FPI) flows.

According to the report, India-focussed offshore funds have seen an investment of $501 million last month, while those of ETFs witnessed an infusion of $55 million, translating into a total of $565 million.

This also marked the highest investment since June, when such funds had received net inflows to the tune of $738 million.

Flows into offshore funds are generally considered to be long-term in nature, whereas flows into ETFs indicate predominantly short-term money.

Assets coming through India-focused offshore funds are long term in nature, compared to India-focused offshore ETFs as the later is less expensive and offers easy exit option, Morningstar India Senior Analyst Manager Research Himanshu Srivastava said.

"Pleasingly, through 2017, India-focused offshore fund consistently received net inflows into offshore funds, indicating that the confidence of long-term investors in Indian markets has not withered enough in testing times. The money that moved out was largely short term in nature," he said.