New Delhi: Taking a positive stance on the Indian stocks, foreign funds increased their exposure to 16 Sensex companies, including Infosys, RIL and HDFC, for the quarter ended March 31, 2014.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs), however, reduced their stakes in 10 firms, including Tata Motors, Tata Power, TCS, Coal India and HDFC Bank during March quarter in comparison to the preceding (October-December) quarter. The latest shareholding patterns in three blue-chip Sensex companies - Maruti Suzuki India, Cipla and Sesa Sterlite Ltd - were not available. The FII holding in FMCG major ITC remained unchanged at 19.26 per cent for the March quarter.
Besides, 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 percentage points at 48.74 per cent, while in ICICI Bank it went up by 1.46 percentage points to 39.87 per cent. In HDFC, FIIs hiked shareholding by 1.46 percentage points to 75.71 per cent. On the other hand, FIIs reduced shareholding in NTPC by 0.99 percentage points to 9.33 per cent, while in HDFC Bank by 0.84 percentage points to 34.08 per cent.
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. FIIs invested about Rs 22,000 crore in the Indian stocks during January-March period. During this period, the benchmark Sensex rose by 5.52 per cent to 22,339.97.
