A new record for India | Mutual funds + individual investors > foreign portfolio investments in stocks

Mutual funds and individual investors now have a bigger stake than foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) in the Indian stock market. With the holdings of domestic Mutual Funds (MFs) in Indian companies hitting a record high of 8.8% in December quarter, the combined ownership of MFs, Retail and HNIs has now outgrown that of foreign portfolio investors for the first time.

While the retail investors held another 7.6% of companies listed on the bourses, the ownership of high net-worth individuals (HNIs) stood at a little over 2% during the quarter.

On the flip side, overseas investors, who used to be the driving force of Indian market at some point of time, has cut down their exposure to a decadal low. At the end of 2023, the ownership of FPIs stood at 18.2%, which is a drop of 300 basis points (bps) over the last three years, show data sourced from primeinfobase.com.

As of December end, shares held by the trinity -MFs, Retail and HNIs – are valued at Rs 66.02 lakh crore. In comparison, the holdings of FPIs valued at Rs 65.11 lakh crore. In fact, the gap between the two groups was as high as 9.1 percentage points (ppts) in March 2015, and since then the FPIs have been cutting their exposure in Indian market, data further revealed.