FPIs lap up finance, healthcare, auto stocks in first half of Dec

Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) bought stocks of financial services, healthcare, automotives and capital goods the most in the first half of December.Financial services saw buying worth Rs 22,891 crore, followed by healthcare (Rs 3,449 crore), automotives and auto components (Rs 3,309 crore) and capital goods (Rs 2,989 crore), according to data collated by Primeinfobase.

“When FPIs come in a big way, they replicate the indices. Finance stocks have high weight in the Nifty. That could be the reason for such a huge allocation,” said Deepak Jasani, head of retail research at HDFC Securities.

Oil and gas stocks saw selling worth Rs 3,954 crore, followed by media and entertainment (Rs 1,211 crore) and chemicals (Rs 120 crore).

Jasani said profit booking in oil marketing and extraction companies could be the reason for selling in oil and gas stocks.

Realty (Rs 103 crore) and textiles (Rs 85 crore) were the other sectors where FPIs sold shares.

FPIs were net buyers to the tune of Rs 42,731 crore in the first fortnight of December.

The highest sectoral allocation of FPIs as of December 15, 2023, was towards financial services, which rose to 32.25 per cent from 32.04 per cent at the end of November.

The allocation to information technology stocks rose to 10.1 per cent from 9.75 per cent. The allocation to oil and gas stocks fell from 8.4 per cent to 8.26 per cent.