Portfolio flows may halve in H2FY10: PMEAC

Foreign fund flows into stock and bond market during the second half of the current fiscal are expected to slow down to $9.2 billion, half the amount received in the first six months.

"Assuming some positive net FII and ADR/GDR inflows, overall portfolio flows in the second half of 2009-10 are placed at $9.2 billion," said the report released by the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) chairman C Rangarajan here today.

Portfolio flows had risen sharply in the first half of 2009-10 to $18 billion, primarily on account of strong FII inflows of $15.3 billion.

The Review further stated that the unsettled conditions in financial markets, which emerged since the third week of January, have made it difficult to assess to what extent portfolio flows would accrue on a net basis in the last quarter of the year.

Portfolio flows include investment made by foreign institutional investors, investments in American depository receipts or global depository receipts and offshore funds.

The Review expects the total portfolio flows for the entire fiscal 2009-10 to be $27.2 billion.

In the past financial year 2008-09, portfolio flows had been negative $14 billion, while there had been flows of $29.6 billion in 2007-08.