Overseas Investor Inflows in Equities Hit 7-Month Low of Rs 5,100 Crore in September

New Delhi: Foreign investors have pumped in a little over Rs 5,100 crore in Indian equity markets in September, making it the lowest net investment in seven months.

Foreign investors were gross buyers of equities worth Rs 93,493 crore last month, while they sold shares amounting to Rs 88,391 crore - translating into a net investment of Rs 5,102 crore ($845 million) for the period, as per the latest data.

This was the lowest net investment by foreign investors in equity markets since February when they had infused Rs 1,404 crore.

Market analysts feel the government's decision to defer gas price hike coupled with the Supreme Court's verdict on cancellation of coal blocks provided foreign investors some reason to offload shares.

Foreign investors are still upbeat on the Indian equity market, they added.

However, overseas investors (foreign institutional investors, sub-accounts or foreign portfolio investors) continued to bet on the debt market and poured in close to Rs 16,000 crore ($2.6 billion) in this segment.

Since the beginning of this year, foreign investors have infused net Rs 83,438 crore ($14 billion) into the share market and net Rs 1.18 lakh crore into the debt market ($19.6 billion).

Strong inflows in the previous months have taken the cumulative net investments of foreign investors into Indian capital markets (equity and debt) to $204 billion, or Rs 9.88 lakh crore, in nearly 22 year period.