New Delhi: India-focussed offshore funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs) witnessed net inflows of $565 million in November and helped the overall tally to reach nearly $6.5 billion in 2017, reflecting confidence of overseas investors in Indian markets.
In comparison, these funds had seen a pull out of $674 million in November last year, according to a report by Morningstar. Offshore India funds—not domiciled in India—receive flow from overseas investors and in turn, invest the money in Indian markets. India-focussed offshore funds and ETFs are a subset of the overall foreign portfolio investor (FPI) flows.
According to the report, India-focussed offshore funds have seen an investment of $501 million last month, while those of ETFs witnessed an infusion of $55 million, translating into a total of $565 million. This also marked the highest investment since June, when such funds had received net inflows to the tune of $738 million.
Flows into offshore funds are generally considered to be long-term in nature, whereas flows into ETFs indicate predominantly short-term money. Assets coming through India-focused offshore funds are long term in nature, compared to India-focused offshore ETFs as the later is less expensive and offers easy exit option, Morningstar India Senior Analyst Manager Research Himanshu Srivastava said.
“Pleasingly, through 2017, India-focused offshore fund consistently received net inflows into offshore funds, indicating that the confidence of long-term investors on Indian markets has not withered enough in testing times. The money that moved out was largely short term in nature,” he said.