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Foreign investors return to India

The average performance of India equity funds was an improvement in September, but most still failed to beat the stock market benchmark.
India equity funds registered for sale in that market got a boost from the return of foreign investors in the local market, according to data from Lipper.

India equity funds posted an average gain of 10.61% last month, recovering from an average 1.35% loss in August. The latest average performance figure is still an underperformance compared with the 13% rise in the benchmark 30-stock Sensitive Index (Sensex), however. Around 85% of the India equity funds failed to beat the performance of the stock market benchmark.

ôForeign institutional investors pumped a healthy sum of close to $4 billion into Indian stocks in the month of September, a large chunk of about $2.74 billion came in after the Fed cut.,ö says Mumbai-based Dhruva Raj Chatterji, a research analyst at Lipper.

That brings the net inflow from foreign institutional investors to more than $12 billion in the first nine months of 2007, despite the $2 billion in foreign institutional investors selling in August largely due to the concerns over the US subprime mortgage crisis.

ôWith the rupee showing further strength, foreign inflows are likely to continue into Indian bourses, albeit it is difficult to say whether the pace will remain the same,ö Chatterji says.

Banking funds were the best performing sector fund category in India last month, posting an average return of17.57%. On average, they still underperformed the benchmark
BSE Bankex index, which rose 20.49%. Technology funds were the worst performing sector fund category last month, posting an average return of 0.70%

Average September performance of fund groups registered for sale in India, by asset types:

Equity India +10.61
Equity Global +7.45
Commodities +6.96
Mixed Asset Other Flexible +6.46
Mixed Asset Other Aggressive +6.39
Mixed Asset INR Balanced +4.95
Protected +3.07
Mixed Asset Other Conservative +2.71
Bond INR General +0.76
Money Market INR +0.54
Bond INR Government +0.35
Bond USD -1.69

Top 5 equity fund sectors in terms of performance in September, with their average gain:


Equity Sector Banks and Financials +17.57%
Equity Sector Utilities +13.54%
Equity Sector General Industry +11.92%
Equity Sector Natural Resources +7.95%
Equity Sector Telecommunications Services +6.25%

Bottom 5 equity fund sectors in terms of performance in September, with their average loss:

Equity Sector Information Technology +0.70
Equity Sector Pharmaceutical and Health +2.48%
Equity Sector Technology, Media and Telecommunications +4.13%
Equity Cyclical Consumer Goods +6.01%
Equity Non-Cyclical Consumer Goods +6.07%

Top 5 equity funds in September, with gain:

Banking Index Benchmark Exchange Traded Scheme +19.46%
Taurus Libra Tax Shield +19.01%
JM Financial Services Sector Fund-Growth +18.91%
UTI Banking Sector Fund-Income +18.23%
SBI Magnum COMMA Fund-Growth +17.88%

Bottom 5 equity funds in September, with loss:

UTI Growth Sector Fund-Software-Income -1.87%
ICICI Prudential Technology Fund -1.30%
Franklin Infotech Fund-Growth -0.11%
SBI Magnum Sector Funds Umbrella-IT -0.09%
Birla Sun Life New Millennium Fund-Growth +0.14%
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