Stocks of realty, consumer services firms are FPIs' stocking stuffers

The stocks of realty and consumer services firms accounted for the maximum foreign portfolio investor (FPI) buying during the first fortnight of December this year.  

FPIs bought realty stocks worth Rs 3,150 crore, and consumer services shares of Rs 2,676 crore, according to the data collated by PRIME Infobase.

Fast-moving consumer goods, or FMCG (Rs 2,649 core), capital goods (Rs 1,984 crore), and metal and mining stocks (Rs 1,391 crore) were the other sectors FPIs parked their money in in the first two weeks of December.  

A combination of sectoral rotation and better consumer spending is attributed to the shift towards realty and consumer services stocks.

FMCG stocks are considered defensive bets whenever there is global financial turmoil.

Alternatively, FPIs dumped oil and gas stocks worth Rs 2,230 crore, and information and technology (IT) stocks of Rs 1,314 crore.

The sector allocation of FPIs to IT stocks declined to 10.4 per cent as of December 15 this year.

The highest allocation was to financial services at 32.69 per cent, followed by oil and gas stocks.