Foreign investors raised ownership in Indian firms in October-December: HSBC

Foreign investors have been broad buyers of Indian shares in the October-December quarter, with increases in foreign institutional investments (FIIs) in about 75 per cent of the BSE 200 companies, according to a report by HSBC.

According to the global financial services major, this means all sectors, except healthcare and staples, saw an increase in FII ownership. Information technology (IT), consumer discretionary and utilities saw the highest net buying by FIIs, the report said.

Interestingly, overseas investors appear underweight in IT - the one sector that had attracted much FII flows - only because the sector weightage was increased by 10 per cent in absolute weight terms in the MSCI India index.

FIIs also increased stakes in 26 industrial companies during the quarter, signalling some rotation towards domestically oriented sectors.

Power Grid Corp of India, Tech Mahindra, UPL, Housing Development & Infrastructure, YES Bank are the stocks that saw the biggest increase in FII ownership.

The biggest FII selling was in Hexaware Technologies, Multi Commodity Exchange of India, Strides Arcolab, Apollo Tyres and Unitech.

(Reuters)