FII inflows in stocks at 5-month high in July

Overseas investors poured more than Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) into the Indian equity markets in July -- the highest monthly inflows in five months -- sidelining concerns over weak monsoon, slowing economic growth and a high interest rate regime.

Foreign institutional investors were gross buyers of shares worth Rs 49,557 crore (Rs 495.57 billion), while they sold equities amounting to Rs 39,285 crore (Rs 392.85 billion), translating into a net inflow of Rs 10,273 crore ($1.85 billion), according to the data available with the Securities and Exchange Board of India.

This was the highest net investment by FIIs in stocks since February 2012 when they had infused Rs 25,212 crore (Rs 252.12 billion).

Market experts said foreign investors have sidelined concerns over weak monsoon, slowing economic growth and a high interest rate regime, mainly on hopes that government would initiate fresh reforms initiatives.

"Besides, investors are expecting that the government would initiate a few key reforms before the start of the Monsoon Session of Parliament on August 8,"

CNI Research CMD Kishor Ostwal said.

"The huge FII inflows were not driven by the country's fundamentals, its mainly because of the global factors such as ECB and the US Federal Reserve.

"In India, there are some concerns like weak monsoon, slowing economic growth among others," Destimoney Securities MD and CEO Sudip Bandhopadhyay said.

In addition, FIIs have also invested Rs 3,392 crore (Rs 33.92 billion) in the debt market last month.

Buoyed by strong inflows, BSE's benchmark Sensex rose 194 points or one per cent last month to settle at 17,236 points on Tuesday.

After taking the latest inflows into account, FIIs investment in the equity market stood at Rs 52,266 crore (Rs 522.66 billion) so far in 2012 and Rs 24,253 crore (Rs 242.53 billion) in the debt market during the same period.

As on July 31, the number of registered FIIs in the country stood at 1,757 and total number of sub-accounts were 6,343 during the same period.