Foreign portfolio investors turn big buyers in March

New Delhi: The trend of rising foreign portfolio investment in India witnessed in the first week of March continued in the second week, says V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.

FPIs were big sellers in January and modest buyers in February. But in March they turned big buyers having bought equity worth Rs 35,665 crores through March 15. This figure includes some bulk deals executed through the stock exchanges and, therefore, is not a true indicator of FPI activity. However, the rising trend of FPI investment continues, he said.

He said that an important feature of FPI investment for many months now has been its erratic nature. FPIs have been changing their strategy in response to the changes in the bond yields in the US.

Therefore, now that US bond yields have again spiked up in response to stubborn inflation, FPIs may again turn sellers in some of the days, going forward, he added.

An important trend in the market in March is the weakness in the mid and smallcaps and the resilience in largecaps. This also has persuaded FPIs to reduce the selling in the large-caps and even buying in limited quantities in sectors like banking, telecom and automobiles, he said.