FPIs stay bullish on growth stocks, cut defensive bets a bit
economictimes.indiatimes.comFPIs have been paring their holdings of defensive stocks instead of those with more growth potential. This shows they remain bullish on the sustained earnings potential of growth stocks in industries like discretionary spending and manufacturing.
Data from NSDL shows the weight of defensive stocks such as FMCG, IT, and healthcare fell to a multi-year low of 19.72% as of May-end.
Defensive sector weightage in FPIs' equity folio declined by 2.89 percentage points in the 12-months to May 31, from a peak of 25% a few years ago. In the same period, the equity portfolio value of defensive stocks fell by 3.3% from the year-earlier period to $192 billion, while FPIs' total equity value rose by 8% to $797 billion.
FPIs sold $1.55 billion (₹12,865 crore) worth of Indian FMCG shares since January and turned sellers in nine out of 10 fortnights this calendar year. Similarly, from the IT sector, FPIs sold $1.23 billion in the same duration and were sellers in eight of the last 10 fortnights in 2024. Overall, FPIs were net sellers of $2.77 billion till May.
However, FPIs were net buyers in power, realty, telecom, capital goods, and auto sectors, which offset outflows from defensive sectors. Capital goods saw the highest net buying at $2.16 billion with rising peak power demand touching a record high of 250 GW in May, which will benefit capital goods makers due to increasing power capex. India would need to double its power sector capex in the next one year to bridge supply deficit compared to the previous six years.
Meanwhil
