Indian equities: Interest for Indian equities rising among Norway, Canada, Dutch funds

ET Intelligence Group: The appetite for Indian equities is growing among investors from the middle-weight developed economics such as Norway, Iceland, Canada, and the Netherlands. The assets under management (AUM) of investors in these countries grew by 15-27 per cent in India since the beginning of the current year. The total AUM by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) grew 11 per cent in India, according to data from NSDL. The FPIs’ total AUM was $423 billion at the end of November 2019. In 2019 so far, they have invested $13.3 billion in Indian equities, the highest in the past five years.

Norway’s AUM growth in India was the highest at 27 per cent to Rs 69,278 crore in the first 11 months of the current year. The Scandinavian nation constitutes 2.3 per cent of the total FPI exposure. It invests in Indian equities through the government pension fund, the world’s largest sovereign fund and Norges Bank. These two funds have invested 1 per cent and 0.5 per cent of their equity assets in India, according to Bloomberg. The share of the middle-weight developed nations in the AUM of FPIs in India was 10 per cent in November 2019, a gain of 400 basis points in the past two years. This has partially offset the declining AUM from Mauritius.

The share of AUM of Mauritius domiciled nations dropped to 13.1 per cent in November 2019 from almost 20 per cent three years ago.