Securities and Exchange Board of India Chairman G N Bajpai on Tuesday said total foreign investment to the country till November this year had already crossed $6 billion mark and only a small part of it was hot money in the form of hedge funds.
"The total investment in debt and equity till now is over $6 billion, in which the percentage of hot money in the form of hedge was very small," Bajpai told reporters here after addressing members of Indian Chamber of Commerce, Kolkata.
He said total investment in equity was to the tune of over $5.5 billion, while the rest was in debt.
"About 26 per cent of the total investment of $6 billion came through participatory notes (PN) and only 25 per cent of that was from hedge funds," Bajpai said.
Thus about $1.35 billion of foreign investment came through PN in which contribution of hedge funds was about $0.34 billion.
India had received record portfolio investments in shares this year and there was some fear that Sebi's strictures could send wrong signals to genuine investors.
Bajpai, however, did not make any comments regarding safeguards the market watchdog was taking to ensure that hot money did not found its way into Indian equities.
