FPIs remain net buyers in December; invest over Rs 2,600 cr

Foreign investors remained net buyers in December by investing Rs 2,613 crore in the domestic markets, mainly due to expectation of a revival in corporate earning, quantitative easing by the US Fed and infusion of funds by central banks globally.

According to the depositories data, a net amount of Rs 6,301.96 crore was invested by foreign portfolio investors (FPI) into equities, while Rs 3,688.94 was pulled out of the debt segment.

This resulted into a total net investment of Rs 2,613.02 crore between Dec 2-27.

"Despite challenges on the economic front and policy roadblocks, FPIs continue to have faith in the Indian equity markets ...what has kept them hooked to the Indian equity markets is expectation of a revival in corporate earning in the coming quarter, quantitative easing by US Fed and infusion of funds by central banks globally," said Himanshu Srivastava, senior research analyst, manager research at Morningstar.

Barring January, July and August, FPIs have been net buyers for rest of the months in 2019. This year, they have invested a net sum of Rs 73,276.63 crore in the Indian markets (both equity and debt).

"In 2019, FPIs remained bullish on India on account of many factors including corporate tax rate cut, RERA, among others have helped in this regard. The valuations in the Indian stock markets were very high.

"Besides factors within India, international factors including lower interest rates in USA, near-zero interest rates in economies like Japan, and negative interest rates in parts of Europe are also driving investments into India," Harsh Jain, co-founder and COO, Groww said.

Regarding future course of FPI flows, Srivastava said there are few negative developments like recent political issues in India and re-emergence of trade war between US and China, which FPIs would be watchful of. While the government has taken several measures to revive the economy the results are yet to be seen.