India sees highest listed foreign funds inflows at USD 1.7 billion

Mumbai: Listed foreign funds pumped in USD 1.7 billion into India during March -- the highest flows among the emerging countries, says a report.

As per foreign fund-flow tracker report by Kotak Institutional Equities, the strong fund flows for March were largely driven by Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) inflows of USD 1.1 billion.

Non-ETF fund inflows stood at USD 620 million. The listed funds -- passive exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and active non-ETFs -- generally account for a large part of foreign portfolio investor (FPI) activity in India.

For listed fund flows to emerging markets, India is followed by Taiwan and Brazil, which have seen listed foreign fund inflows to the tune USD 937 million and USD 785 million respectively.

"Listed fund flows to India remained positive in March. India has seen USD 1.7 billion of inflows, driven by strong ETF inflows of USD 1.1 billion," the report said.

"Emerging market flows -- India has seen strong inflows of USD 1.7 bn in March, followed by Taiwan and Brazil," it added. The report also noted that allocations to India and China constitute more than one-third of the average Asia fund portfolio (excluding Japan).

"Allocation to India by Asia ex-Japan funds has marginally decreased to 13.6 per cent," the report said.

"Allocation by Asia ex-Japan ETF funds to India increased to 9.6 per cent from 9.1 per cent in the previous month," it added.