Flowing Back For Better Returns

Are FIIs following a reverse trend in India now?

- Himali Patel

As Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) turned net sellers in June and August, after five months of buying, a revival trend was witnessed in September. Is this a sign of revival post-government measures or India’s growth story is still far from being revived? Well, that’s definitely debatable.

There is a reason why the World Economic Forum (WEF) has placed India 10 spots lower at 68th rank as compared to last year in its report on global competitiveness. WEF predicts that the global economy is ill-prepared for a downturn after a lost decade for productivity-enhancing measures and is heading towards a major slowdown. It implies that there is barely any central bank in the world that right now is not easing interest rates to combat the growth slowdown. This turned Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) into net sellers as they engaged in a selling spree in the month of July ($ -1.9 bn/₹ 190 Crore) and August 2019 ($2.2 bn/Rs.220 Crore), after five months of buying in the calendar year, putting Indian markets on a bearish mode. So far, for the nine months of 2019, S&P BSE Sensex has garnered only 8.3 per cent gains. During the same period, BSE mid cap and BSE small cap index has dropped by 7.8 per cent and 9.6 per cent respectively.