India equity funds see $9.5-bn inflow in H1 of FY15

Market analysts attributed the inflows in equity funds focused on Indian market to a slew of reform measures taken by the govt

India focused equity funds have witnessed an inflow of over USD 9.5 billion from worldwide investors in the first six months of the year, while neighboring China has seen a hefty outflow of USD 17 billion during the same period, says a report.

All the emerging markets equity funds saw a pullout from investors during the first half of 2015, barring India and Russia.

According to funds tracking company EPFR Global, overseas investors pumped in USD 9.52 billion in equity funds focused on Indian market during January-June period of 2015.

Market analysts attributed the inflows in equity funds focused on Indian market to a slew of reform measures taken by the government, including passage of bills related to insurance, coal allocation and mining and assurances in the Union Budget to revisit controversial issues like General Anti-Avoidance Rule (GAAR).

In contrast, equity funds focused on China witnessed an outflow of USD 16.89 billion, while the same for Brazil stood at USD 1.04 billion.

Russia focused equity funds saw an inflow of USD 435 million.

Explaining the outflow from China, EPFR said that Greece's standoff with its creditors has took a toll on the country.

At the country-wise level, equity funds focused on Korea witnessed a withdrawal of USD 3.31 billion in January-June period of 2015, Mexico (USD 1.36 billion), Africa (USD 179 million) and Emerging Europe (USD 821 million).

Overall, emerging markets equity funds witnessed an outflow of USD 21 billion during the first half of the year.

However, EPFR said "emerging markets equity funds showed surprising resilience during a quarter which started with an IMF warning about global liquidity and ended with Greece in default to the IMF and China's benchmark equities indexes pushing into bear market territory.