Top six companies lose Rs41,307 in value as FIIs offload Rs1,700-cr stocks in a week

Foreign investors have pulled out nearly Rs1,700 crore from Indian equities in the first week of February, dragging down the combined market capitalisation of top six companies by around Rs41,307 crore.

TCS, RIL, ITC, ONGC, Infosys and Wipro have seen their market valuation erode by a combined Rs41,307 crore last week.

However, Coal India Ltd, HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel and HUL have made gains.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs), which remain the main driver in Indian markets, had bought $20 billion worth of stocks in the year 2013.

FIIs have turned net sellers of Indian shares in 2014 ostensibly because of further tapering of the US Federal Reserve's bond purchase programme and rising concerns over global growth momentum.

The Fed, which cut bond purchases to $75 billion from $85 billion in January, announced a further $10 billion reduction in the programme last week.

FIIs bought equities worth Rs13,253 crore and sold stocks for a total of Rs14,921 crore till 7 February, taking away Rs1,668 crore ($266 million) in the process, data available with market regulator SEBI showed.

Overseas funds have also withdrawn Rs1,829 crore from the debt market so far this month.

FIIs investment in bonds stood at Rs10,780 crore at the beginning of 2014.

Market analysts do not expect FII inflows to strengthen until at least the general elections, scheduled for May.

Meanwhile, the number of registered FIIs in the country stood at 1,727 while the total number of sub-accounts rose to 6,371, as of 7 February 2014.