By Manish M. Suvarna

Mumbai, Aug 24 (IANS): Foreign investors have shown more interest in the Indian companies in the April-June quarter, which led to sharp increase in holding of these entities in these five companies.

This was even after they remained net sellers of equities in last 9 months before turning buyers since end of July this year.

According to the data compiled by Prabhudas Lilladher showed, foreign investors increased their holding in RHI Magnesita India Ltd to 2.2 per cent, as compared to 0.64 per cent as on March 31.

Whereas, holdings in Esab India Ltd rose to 0.64 per cent from 0.21 per cent, in Tata Coffee Ltd it rose to 1.78 per cent from 0.71 per cent, in Hindustan Copper Ltd it rose to 0.67 per cent to 0.31 per cent, and in Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd it increased to 1.6 per cent from 0.77 per cent, data showed.

Apart from this, there are few other state-owned entities where holding of FPIs have increased. Such as India Bank, Rashtriya Chemical and Fertilizers Ltd, ong others. Experts believe that rise in holding is due to shift in interest to value stocks.

The inflows of foreign investors in the Indian equities was more than Rs 21,000 crore so far from July 28. Foreign investors turned buyers since late July after remaining sellers in the equities for almost 9 months.

Experts believe that foreign investors have returned to Indian market because India is preferred destination as country has best growth prospects among large economies of the world. FPIs have turned net buyers in autos, capital goods, FMCG, and Telecom.