Foreign portfolio investors pump in Rs 22,038 crore in February amid post-Budget cheer

New Delhi: Continuing their buying trend, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have pumped in a net Rs 22,038 crore into the Indian markets in February so far amid positive sentiments around the Union Budget. According to depositories data, overseas investors poured in Rs 20,593 crore into equities and Rs 1,445 crore in the debt segment, taking the total net investment to Rs 22,038 crore during 1 to 12 February. In January, FPIs were net investors to the tune of Rs 14,649 crore. Himanshu Srivastava, associate director, manager research, Morningstar India, attributed the strong inflows in February to “the positive sentiments around the equity markets after the Union Budget.” The government’s efforts in the Budget to bring the economy back on track have been lauded by investors, he added. Besides, there are other indicators that support FPI flows into the equity markets like continuous decline in the COVID-19 case count, rollout of vaccines, growth in earnings and measures taken by the government to boost the economy, Srivastava said. VK Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services, noted that there is sectoral rotation happening in the market now. In 2020, pharma sector was a preferred choice and the sector did very well, while banking stocks underperformed due to potential non-performing assets concerns. “Now the banking stocks are again sought after by the FPIs. IT stocks continue to be favourites with high delivery buying,” he added. Echoing the views, S Ranganathan, head of research at LKP Securities, said “sectors like private banks, consumer, FMCG and IT have seen foreign flows as Indian companies have exhibited resilience and demonstrated growth post lifting of the lockdown restrictions in third quarter.” Foreign flows are expected to be positive in fourth quarter as well, since the Budget has been pro-growth with privatisation gaining ground, he added. With the economic condition of India improving at speeds much better than earlier thought, this trend of FPI investments might continue in the near future, said Harsh Jain, co-founder and COO at Groww.