FIIs Data: After selling shares worth about $14 billion in October and November, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have again bought in the Indian stock market in December 2024. Foreign investors bought shares worth $1.83 billion in this month.

During December, foreign investors invested the most in the IT sector, while selling $1.3 billion from the oil and gas sector. According to NSDL data, in other sectors, FIIs increased their stake in real estate, healthcare and capital goods.

In December, FPIs bought IT stocks worth $1.1 billion, followed by real estate ($562 million) and healthcare ($442 million). At the same time, $368 million was also invested in capital goods and financial services stocks. On the other hand, FPIs sold $513 million and $327 million in the automobile and consumer staples sectors respectively. In which sectors are the purchases? Buying in IT stocks has been done especially before the announcement of December quarter results. FIIs have the second largest stake in the IT sector, while they have the highest stake in financial services. Together, these two sectors make up 40% of their total net investment in India. However, FIIs have been net sellers in the Indian stock market for most of 2024. The main reason for this is slow profit growth and high valuations. Currently, the Nifty50 is trading at a valuation of 19.4 times its one-year forward earnings estimate, while it is 8.6 times for Korea and 16 times for Taiwan TAIEX. According to Bloomberg data, the Chinese CSI 300 index is valued at 12.3 times. What did the experts say? Morgan Stanley India MD Ridham Desai said that earnings growth is expected to be in mid-single digits in the December quarter, due to weak top-line growth. He said, "We believe that the cycle of earnings growth is continuing and it is ahead of market expectations." Morgan Stanley has expressed confidence in private banks, select consumer and industrial stocks and IT services stocks. Shares of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) rose nearly 6% on Friday after the company expressed confidence about a rise in discretionary spending by clients despite weak earnings results in the December quarter. The Nifty IT index rose 3.4% on Friday, its biggest one-day gain in two months. FIIs' assets under custody (AUC) stood at $831 billion at the end of December 2024, accounting for 16% of the country's equity market.