FIIs bought 256 mn more Sensex shares in Q3

Foreign institutional investors raised their holding of Sensex stocks by almost 2 percentage points to 17.44 per cent in the quarter ended December 2003.

In aggregate, FIIs bought 256.84 million shares, from 2,093.86 million shares (15.58 per cent of the 30 Sensex stocks) in September 2003 to 2,350.70 million shares (17.44 per cent) at the end of December 2003.

Interestingly, of the net FIIs purchases of Rs 16,304 crore (Rs 163.04 billion) in the October-December quarter of 2003, 75 per cent of the investment, at Rs 12,486 crore (Rs 124.86 billion), was in Sensex stocks.

The aggregate valuation of the FII holding in Sensex stocks is Rs 1,48,020 crore (Rs 1480.2 billion), 43.37 per cent of the market capitalisation of the floating stock of Sensex scrips.

Of the 30 Sensex stocks, FIIs hold 81.38 per cent of the free float market capitalisation in HDFC, 79.66 per cent stake in Satyam Computer, 74.95 per cent in Zee Telefilms, 71.31 per cent in ICICI Bank and 68.32 per cent in Infosys Technologies.

Stocks in the FIIs' buying list in the October-December quarter include Hindustan Lever, Infosys Technologies, ITC and Reliance Industries. FIIs increased their holding in Cipla, HDFC, Satyam Computer Services and Tata Steel by around 5-6 per cent each.

In BSES, Gujarat Ambuja Cement, Hindalco, HPCL, ICICI Bank, Larsen and Toubro, Tata Power and Zee Telefilms, the FII holding increased by over 3 per cent in each case.

In Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Grasim Industries, Infosys Technologies, Reliance Industries and Tata Motors, FIIs increased their holding by 2-3 per cent each.

But their holding in Ranbaxy Laboratories declined from 23.91 per cent at the end of September 2003 to 23.58 per cent at the end of December.

Tata Steel was the most favoured stock with FIIs; they doubled their holding from the previous quarter. The FII holding in the company increased from 6.31 per cent at the end of September to 12.43 per cent in December.

Janus Special Equity Fund and Janus Worldwide Fund were the major buyers in the company, holding a combined 2.86 per cent stake at the end of December.