FIIs lifted stake in these large-cap firms even as selloff gathered pace

Indian stock indices have been in the consolidation zone after swinging back and forth over the last two months, having tested the all-time peak early this year. The top indices are now just 10% shy of the all-time high.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) or foreign institutional investors (FIIs) had become more cautious about investing in India over the last one year. In fact, in the October-December 2021 quarter, they were net sellers in Indian equities and pulled out over $5.1 billion in the process.

In the first four months of this year, they made their bearish sentiments apparent with net sales of securities worth $20 billion on the equities side alone.

We scanned through the list of companies that have disclosed their shareholding patterns to find companies where FIIs took a bullish stance and actually increased their holding.

In particular, they increased their stake in 60 companies that have a valuation of $1 billion or more last quarter. In comparison, they had sold a stake in as many as 92 companies that have a valuation of $1 billion or more last quarter.

However, this number was higher than the 41 companies in which they lifted their stake during the quarter ended December 31, 2021.

On the flip side, they had been more bullish on these companies having bought additional shares of 89 such firms in the three months ended September 30 and 83 such companies in the quarter ended June 30, 2021.

Of the 60 companies in which FIIs increased their stake, 30 companies were large caps. FIIs were bullish on selective IT, pharma and FMCG counters besides metals and mining stocks, oil and gas, power and PSU banks.

Top large caps that saw FII buying

If we look at the pack of large caps with a market valuation of Rs 20,000 crore ($2.6 billion) or more, then FPIs pushed up their stake in Infosys, ITC, Sun Pharma, ONGC, Power Grid, NTPC, JSW Steel, Tata Steel, Vedanta, Coal India, IOC, Adani Power and Bajaj Auto.

Among others, they also turned bullish on Hindalco, BPCL, UPL, Cipla, Indus Towers, Bank of Baroda, Colgate-Palmolive, IDBI Bank, Canara Bank, JSPL, IOB and Yes Bank.

Lower down the order, they upped stake in Indian Hotels, Aarti Industries, Honeywell Automation, Bata India and GlaxoSmithKline Pharma.

Meanwhile, in 17 firms FIIs picked up 2% of more additional stake last quarter. Within this pack, firms with a market cap of Rs 20,000 crore or more where they hiked stake by 2% or more include four names: ITC, Indus Towers, Cipla and Yes Bank.