Inflows from foreign institutional investors may have slowed down but that has not stopped new entrants from coming in.
In just about a month between March 14 and April 15, around 14 new FIIs have obtained registration with the Securities and Exchange Board of India, taking the number from 675 as on March 15 to 689 as on April 15.
Most of the FIIs which have been registered are from European countries such as France, the Netherlands, Germany and even Ireland among others. A good number of those now investing in the Indian markets are retirement and pension funds, which are looking elsewhere to maximise returns. Pension funds from Australia are also now investing in India, according to the data.
The proportion of investors from the US investing in India has fallen drastically. Market watchers said that it is not that the number of US funds coming to India has gone down but those from other countries has gone up.
The trigger point for retirement trusts to make a beeline to the Indian shore would appear to be California-based CalPERS, which announced its entry into the Indian stock markets last year. Other such retirement funds gained confidence from CalPERS entry.
So far this year FIIs have pumped in close to $4 billion into Indian equities but most of the flows took place in the first two months of the year since the markets have been on a downtrend for nearly a month now.
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