FIIs infuse Rs 14,064 crore in Indian equity market this week, buying to continue

Mumbai, Sep 21: The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) turned aggressive buyers this week with infusing Rs 14,064 crore in the cash market as Indian markets remained resilient amid robust economy performance, data showed on Saturday. Total FII investment till September 20 stood at Rs 33,699 crore, taking the total FII investment in the country to Rs 76,585 crore this year to date, as per NSDL data.

Market watchers said that the trend of FII buying is likely to continue in the coming days. Manoj Purohit from BDO India said the US Federal Reserve made the first interest rate cut in the last four years, by a larger than anticipated margin of 50 bps and the foreign portfolio investors (FPI) fraternity has been conscious about this move and reacted passively.

“The Indian markets reflected their resilience on a positive note basis the strong fundamentals and robust economy performance at the expected GDP growth,” said Purohit. September witnessed the second highest inflows in 2024 so far, the last one being in March. The flood of FII money has appreciated the rupee by 0.4 per cent for the week ended September 20. This can boost further FII buying, sayd analysts.

Despite global uncertainties, the primary factors, to make emerging markets like India a sweet spot, are balanced fiscal deficits, rate cut impacts on the Indian currency, strong valuations, and RBI’s approach to keep inflation under control without a rate cut. To add, the IPOs announced this year attracted a large chunk of foreign funds making the Indian capital market buoyant and a lucrative place to shift their positions from other riskier countries, said analysts.

All eyes on the RBI now whether it follows the suit by making a cut in the repo rate in October or wait till December. There is a strong case to marginally cut rates to manage food inflation, diluted interest from household savings which impact the retail lending business of banks. India’s monetary policy has been more conservative despite the Fed's action so far, said Purohit.