Overseas investment in the country?s top 11 companies has touched a record high in the three months to March 2014, marking the seventh consecutive quarter of equity buying by foreign institutional investors (FIIs). Financial services and IT appear to be clear favourites given that nearly half of these 11 companies belonged to these sectors. All these stocks have outdone the benchmark Nifty in the last five years during which the 50-share index on average yielded 15.6%. In the banking space, private sector players Axis Bank and IndusInd Bank saw the biggest increase in FII shareholding during the quarter. The FII stakes in these banks went up by 556 bps and 215 bps, respectively. IndusInd Bank emerged as the best performer in the sample as the stock has almost doubled its value in each of the last five years. The FII holding in all the top IT firms touched record high at the end of fiscal 2013-14. The only exception is TCS, where FII stake came down by 22 bps from a record high holding of 16.33% in the quarter ended December 2013. It is not surprising then that all these stocks have scaled life-time highs in the last four months. In case of Infosys, its founder NR Narayan Murthy’s decision to helm the IT giant in the capacity of the executive chairman in the fiscal seems to have enthused overseas investors even as the Street remain concerned about the revenue growth trajectory as well as exits of top executives. During the period under review, FII stake in Infosys rose by 255 basis points to 42.1%. Other companies which saw a surge in holdings are automaker M&M (to 36.92%), Cairn India (17.8%)and PSU bleuchips, Power Grid Corporation (26.16%) and NMDC (6.16%).
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