FIIs turn net buyers in Aug

Reserves have already fallen more than $2.0 billion from a peak of $ 38.341 billion in mid-April, partly reflecting the central bank’s attempts to improve supply in the face of a bunching up of import demand. Current reserves are still sufficient to cover around eight months’ imports.

On last Tuesday when the market shot up and Infosys zoomed by nearly 16 per cent, there were rumours that FIIs had put in a huge amount. Despite all-round talks of huge FII buyings on Tuesday, the Sebi’s FII investment figures shows a net inflow to the tune of Rs 186 crore only. And the break-up showed a gross purchase of Rs 303 crore while the sales figure was Rs 117 crore. And the figures betrayed market’s expectations. But according to a market analysts, it could have been an instance of heavy warehousing on behalf of the FIIs which has not yet been reported. “Those trades will be reported as `FII trades’ only after they accrue to the foreign investors at a later date,” said the analyst.

Meanwhile, during the first ten days of August, mutual funds recorded a net purchase of equity at Rs 38.42 crore and net sales of debt instruments at Rs 77.54 crore. Gross purchase of equity by the mutual funds during the ten days was Rs 436.86 crore while the gross sales were Rs 398.44 crore. In debts, mutual funds’ gross purchase was at Rs 266.1 crore as against total sales of Rs 343.64 crore.