Financial stocks cornered over half of $3.56 billion FPI flows in Feb

Sector now has 34.8% of FPI assets, up from 33.8% in Jan; flows drove banking index to all-time high

Banking and financial stocks got more than their fair share of foreign portfolio investor (FPI) flows in February. Overseas investors pumped in $3.56 billion into domestic equities last month. Of this $1.96 billion went into financial stocks, data analysed by Edelweiss shows.

“The sector now has 34.8 per cent of FPI assets, up from 33.8 per cent in January. The flows drove the banking sector index to an all-time high,” said Abhilash Pagaria, analyst, Edelweiss Securities.

The Bank Nifty index rose as much as 22 per cent in February but later gave up some gains but still ended the month