Financial services see nearly half of FII flows in November

Financial services, including banks, HFCs , NBFCs, etc, attracted almost half of the record total foreign investor inflows of Rs 60,357 crore in November. These flows pushed up the Bank Nifty 23.88% to 29609 and the Nifty 11.4% to 12969.

Total flows to the financial services sector were Rs 29,074 crore.

The sector second on the FII/FPI buying list in November was pharma and biotech which accounted for Rs 4309 crore (7.1%). This was followed by auto and auto components (Rs 3730 crore ; 6.2%), capital goods (Rs 3350 crore; 5.5%), and food, beverages and tobacco (Rs 2799 crore; 4.6%).

"Clearly, financials such as Kotak Bank, Bajaj twins, drove the banking index and Nifty in good measure," said Rajesh Palviya, technical head at Axis Securities.

The flows have continued unabated this month too with a total of Rs 23,094 crore pumped in so far, NSDL data show.

Fund managers are positioning themselves across these sectors to reap rich returns.

"In our fund, ACE Equity PMS, we have a combination of stocks from sectors which have and are seeing strongest foreign investor inflows," Amit Gupta, fund manager, ISec PMS, told ET.

Since breaking the January 20 high of 12430.5, there has been no looking back for the markets, which on December 8 hit a record 13,435.45. Sameet Chavan, chief analyst -technical and derivatives, Angel Broking sees 13450-13500 a “key resistance zone” and 13300-13250 a “crucial support base” for now.

FIIs are significantly net long index futures - Nifty and Bank Nifty — by 70,748 contracts on a cumulative basis.

The huge fund flows have absorbed the selling by domestic institutional investors, including mutual funds .