After a lull in 2008, Indian equities once again became the favourite bet for foreign funds, who pumped in nearly Rs 88,000 crore (Rs 880 billion) in domestic shares in 2009, the Economic Survey said on Thursday.
While foreign institutional investors (FIIs) purchased equities worth Rs 7.36 lakh crore in gross and recorded a gross sale of Rs 6.48 lakh crore in 2009, resulting in a net purchase of Rs 87,987 crore (Rs 879.87 billion) at the end of the year.
The FII inflow so far this year has broken the previous high of Rs 80,915 crore (Rs 809.15 billion) parked by foreign fund houses in domestic equities in 2007.
The FII inflow of Rs 87,987 crore in 2009 is the highest ever in the country in rupee terms in a single year.
This comes a year after they pulled out over Rs 41,216 crore, from the domestic bourses -- a trend triggered with the collapse of global financial services icon Lehman Brothers in the middle of September 2008.. This selling trend continued till the first two months of 2009.
However, with the sign of revival in global economies, the trend turned positive during March and overseas investors started betting big on the domestic bourses.
The trend of strong FII inflows to the tune of Rs 31,000 crore (about $6.3 billion) witnessed during April-June quarter of 2009 gained further during the September quarter and the period witnessed an infusion of hefty Rs 34,313 crore (Rs 343.13 billion).
In the December quarter, foreign fund houses made a net investment of about Rs 25,000 crore (Rs 250 billion) in the stock market, amid a period that witnessed the Dubai debt crisis.
Buoyed by FII inflow during 2009, the stock market barometer Sensex gained over 70 per cent, one of the best performer among leading global bourses, to 17,464.81 points. During the year, the number of registered FIIs increased by 112 to 1,706, while the tally of registered sub-accounts rose by 459 to 5,331, the Survey said.
The FII inflow in spot market increased to Rs 83,424 crore (Rs 834.24 billion) in 2009, as compared to withdrawals of Rs 52,987 crore (Rs 529.87 billion) in 2008.
However, foreign fund investment in debt market dropped to Rs 4,563 crore (Rs 45.63 billion) in 2009, from Rs 11,772 crore (Rs 117.72 billion) in 2008, the survey added.
