Mumbai: Amidst high level of volatility in the global equity markets, the foreign portfolio investors have turned consistent sellers of domestic equities during the past ten trading sessions.Experts tracking the market said that some of the global investors had exceeded their mandate by investing more in Indian equities in 2014 and they are now trying to readjust their global portfolio by reducing their exposure to the Indian markets.
“India’s weightage in the Morgan Stanley Capital Index (MSCI) is around 8 per cent. However, some of the global funds have invested as much as 24 per cent of their total corpus into Indian equities, far exceeding the mandate given by their clients. So they are now trying to readjust their global portfolio by trimming their exposure to India,” said Deven Choksey, managing director, K.R. Choksey Shares and Securities.
According to the data available with the National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL), overseas investors have offloaded equities worth '1,050 crore during the last few days. U.R. Bhat, managing director of Dalton Capital Advisors said that the global fund managers were overweight on India by choice as there was high expectation from the new government and India’s growth prospects. “Some of the fund managers would have changed their views on India because of the slow progress in economic reforms and the widening trade deficit.
Some of the global funds were sitting on 30-40 per cent gains and it is natural for them to book some profits from the Indian market,” he added. According to Uday Narayan Dubey, vice-president, institutional desk at R.K. Global, foreign portfolio investors had increased their exposure in the domestic equities as India is in a better position as compared to most of its emerging market peers.
“The slow progress in economic reforms and high volatility in the global markets have prompted some of the fund houses to book some profits from the Indian market,” added Mr Dubey. However, Andrew Holland, chief executive officer, Ambit Investment Advisors said that the selling in Indian markets was largely due to external factors.
“The fall in the Russian rouble and a slump in global crude oil prices led to some kind of risk aversion in the global markets. So some of the funds that had focused on emerging market equities turned sellers during the last couple of days,” said Andrew Holland, chief executive officer (CEO), Ambit Investment Advisors.
