"Last year in December, there were 408 FIIs registered with SEBI. As of last week, the number has gone up to 808. The 100 per cent growth shows the kind of interest among FIIs on Indian market," Pratip Kar, executive director, SEBI told the Indo-US Summit in New Delhi.
FII inflows increased to $8.2 billion till now this year from an aggregate 8.4 billion dollars in whole of 2004.
Interestingly, US-based fund managers contributed about 42 per cent of the FII inflow to India last year this time, it is now at 29 per cent of the total fund inflow.
"This shows that the investment demand from rest of the world has gone up considerably," Kar said, adding the potential is much more, which is yet to be exploited.
The participation of Indian household sector in capital market is abysmally low, but the potential is very high if household savings are channelised to market, he said.
India has adopted the T+2 settlement system and there has been 100 per cent dematerialised settlement since 1998 replacing truckload of security papers that used to be brought by institutional investors for transactions earlier.
What attracts foreign investors to India, is its robust risk management system, highest level of corporate governance and disclosure norms on IPOs and other matters, Kar said.