FPIs seen to remain bullish on India market

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) are expected to continue to pump in funds in the Indian equities market, as upbeat sentiment like weak global gold and oil prices and the upcoming quarterly results season makes it attractive.

"The FIIs will be watching the quarterly results closely. Plus the money flow is expected to continue as the Indian economy remains attractive," Sanjeev Zarbade, vice president- private client group research, Kotak Securities told IANS.

However, the FPIs had become net sellers in the equities market this week due to negative global cues such as slow growth in Europe and Chinese economy and Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) decision to maintain key interest rates in its bi-monthly monetary policy.

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) along with sub-accounts and qualified foreign investors have been clubbed together by market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to create a new investor category called FPIs.

FPIs massively sold stocks worth Rs.653.95 crore or $105.29 million, according to data with the National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL).

For the week ended Sep 26, the FPIs had sold stocks worth Rs.2,487.02 crore and had only bought shares worth $75.40 million or Rs.458.34 crore.

Davendra Nevgi, chief executive, ZyFin Advisors who told IANS that due to weak global cues markets will watch developments like price drops in gold and oil keenly, this in turn will make the Indian markets more attractive.

Apart from low oil and gold prices positive global cues like the recent euphoria in the US market due to the strong employment numbers is also expected to have healthy impact on the market.

The U.S. Labor Department this week reported that the economy created 248,000 jobs last month, its strongest performance since pre-financial crises days.

Crude oil prices continued to decline after Saudi Arabia's state-run oil company cut prices.

Gold prices too dropped significantly to be sold below $1,200 an ounce for the first time this year.

The Indian equities markets had posted marginal losses in the current truncated week as profit booking led to volatile trade.

The benchmark Sensex was marginally down by 0.21 percent in the week ended Oct 1 from its previous weekly close on Sep 26. The index closed at 26,567.99 points, while it had ended trade at 26,626.32 points on Sep 26.

In the previous week the 30-scrip Sensitive Index had lost 1.71 percent in the week ended Sep 26 from its previous weekly close on Sep 19. The index closed at 26,626.32 points, while it had ended trade at 27,090.42 points on Sep 19.