News: FII inflows cross $3 b on Dalal Street

(PTI 29/04/2007) Mumbai - It's raining dollars in the Indian stock market with the overseas investment on the local bourses crossing $ 3 billion mark since the beginning of this year.

Foreign Institutional Investors have put in a net of $ 3.05 billion (over Rs 13,500 crore) in the Indian stocks so far in 2007, while taking their total net investment in the country so far to over $ 52 billion.

However, the net FII inflows in the first four months of 2007 is over a billion dollars, less than the figure invested in the same period of the previous year.

More than half of the net investment by FIIs this year came in the month of April alone after the overseas investors returned to the bourses with positive sentiments as Sensex regained its once-lost 14,000 level.

The bourses had witnessed a herd-like flight of FIIs after a sharp fall in February this year, but with the corporate earnings results meeting or beating expectations, the sentiments have improved considerably, said a broker.

According to the data available with the market regulator SEBI, FIIs purchased stocks worth close to Rs 46,400 crore and sold stocks worth about Rs 39,500 crore in April 2007, taking their net investment to about Rs 6,900 crore (about $ 1.56 billion).

However, the net FII investment for January-April period is estimated to remain around $ 3 billion level, as against about $ 3.3 billion in the same period of 2006, said another broker.

FIIs had purchased stocks worth a net of about $ 8 billion in entire 2006, as against a record high of $ 10.7 billion in 2005. A sharp plunge of about 30 per cent in the May-June period and another major fall in December were the major drivers for the decline in FII inflows last year.

However, if the prevailing positive trend continues on the FII front, the total overseas investment on the domestic bourses could rise to as high as $ 12 billion, while beating the record set in 2005, the broker added.

Besides, the depreciating dollar against the Indian rupee could also propel the net FII inflows in terms of the US currency.

A lot would depend on how the market reacts to further corporate earnings results going forward, the analysts believe. If the benchmark Sensex manages to regain the 14,000 level decisively by keeping above this mark for a couple of weeks, the sentiments could get a significant boost and herald a prolonged uptrend on the bourses.

Last week, the Sensex plunged by more than 320 points on Friday while ending a five-day upward rally primarily driven by strong corporate results.