In the last three months stock markets have been rising to new highs on the back of heavy buying from foreign institutional invest (FII). FIIs have invested about Rs 22,000 crore in the Indian stocks during January-March period which helped the benchmark Sensex surge by 5.52 per cent. This has resulted in rise in FII’s stake in 16 companies out of the 30 comprising Sensex.
As per the latest shareholding pattern present with Bombay Stock Exchange for the quarter ended March 31, 2014, FIIs have invested heavily in banking stock. Top companies in which foreign funds increased their exposure includes Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Infosys, RIl and HDFC.
The largest rise in FII ownership was seen in Axis Bank, followed by ICICI Bank and HDFC. Overseas investors raised stake in Axis Bank by 5.56 per cent to 48.74 per cent, while in ICICI Bank it went up by 1.46 per cent to 39.87 per cent. In HDFC, FIIs hiked shareholding by 1.46 percentage points to 75.71 per cent.
FIIs, however, reduced their stakes in 10 firms, including Tata Motors, Tata Power, Tata Consultancy Services, Coal India and HDFC Bank during March quarter in comparison to the preceding October-December quarter. FII holding in state-run NTPC reduced by 0.99 per cent to 9.33 per cent followed by HDFC Bank where their stake shrunk by 0.84 per cent to 34.08 per cent.For three companies, Maruti Suzuki India, Cipla and Sesa Sterlite ltd, the latest shareholding patterns were not available.
The FII holding in FMCG major ITC remained unchanged at 19.26 per cent for the March quarter.
Market analysts said that overseas investors are bullish on Indian stocks and are looking forward to a stable government that can move reforms process faster, irrespective of which political party comes to power at the Centre