Foreign institutional investors' investments account for 41 per cent of the free-float capitalisation of stocks on the Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex. FIIs hold nearly one-third of the total free-float market capitalisation.

FII investments in Sensex stocks were valued at Rs 81,912 crore (Rs 819.12 billion), while the free-float market value of Sensex stocks stood at Rs 1,99,884 crore (Rs 1,998.84 billion) on September 5.

On a full market capitalisation basis, FIIs hold around 14 per cent of the market capitalisation of stocks traded on all bourses.

FIIs' net investments in India include those made in American Depository Receipts and Global Depository Receipts.

FIIs bought Rs 11,609 crore (Rs 116.09 billion) worth of shares from the market in the first eight months of 2003. This is almost 91 per cent of the highest-ever FII buying of Rs 12,820 crore (Rs 128.20 billion), in 2001.

"The story is likely to continue as new players are entering the market and the valuations are still attractive. The number of FIIs investing in India is growing every month," said a FII source.

FIIs have poured almost Rs 100,000 crore (Rs 1,000 billion) into Indian equities in 10 years. They were net buyers of Rs 78,346 crore (Rs 783.46 billion) in the domestic equity market and invested Rs 21,430 crore (Rs 214.30 billion) in Indian ADRs and GDRs.

In the last 10 years of their operations in India, FIIs were sellers on average once in six months.

In other words, over the last 127 months since the first FII put money in the Indian market, they were net buyers for 105 months and net sellers for 22 months.