Foreign investors keep faith in 83 stocks despite prolonged India selloff

Mumbai: Life Insurance Corp (LIC), ONGC, BHEL, Indian Bank and Aditya Birla Capital are among 83 companies that have featured consistently in the shopping cart of foreign portfolio investors (FPI) over the past four quarters, even though overseas funds have been major sellers of Indian equities through this period.

An ET analysis of latest shareholding data, after the September quarter, showed that these companies across the market cap spectrum were favoured by FPIs.

They increased their holdings in companies such as AAA Technologies, Virtuoso Optoelectronics, Aqylon Nexus, Gujarat Energy, Shaily Engineering, South Indian Bank, Hazoor Multi Projects, Midwest Energy, NIBE, GMR Airports, DCB Bank, Deccan Cements, Abans Financial Services, Vedanta and Thyrocare Technologies, among others.

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To be sure, FPIs sold nearly $28 billion of Indian stocks between January and September this year, reflecting the impact of expensive valuations, subdued corporate earnings, global trade uncertainties and geopolitical tensions.

Among the large-cap companies, FPIs raised their stakes for four consecutive quarters in Lupin, SAIL, Bank of Maharashtra, Biocon and Abbott India, besides those cited above.

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More recently, concerns over rising crude oil prices, inflation, India’s fiscal and external balances, and the limited availability of large artificial intelligence-related investment opportunities in India have also weighed on foreign investor sentiment. They have turned buyers only over the past fortnight. AAA Technologies recorded the sharpest 36.83%increase in foreign shareholding in Q2.