FIIs trim exposure in 19 Sensex companies in Jul-Sep quarter

New Delhi: Foreign institutional investors have reduced their holdings in 19 blue chip firms that are part of the 30-share benchmark Sensex during July-September quarter as they recast their portfolio on account of several domestic and global factors.

They have raised their holdings in 11 companies, as per the data available for the 3-month period ended September 30.

In the April-June quarter, FIIs had trimmed exposure in 20 blue-chip companies.

Market experts said that a slew of global and domestic factors including concerns over economic slowdown in China and weak GDP numbers in India prompted FIIs to reduce their holdings.

Moreover, foreign investors have pulled out more than Rs 18,000 crore from the stock markets during the July-September quarter, higher than over Rs 2,600 crore outflow in the preceding three months.

FIIs cut their stake in Hindalco the most in the September quarter -- by 3.42 percentage points to 21.46 per cent. They reduced shareholding in Axis Bank by 2.38 percentage points to 42.13 per cent, while in GAIL it fell by 2.22 percentage points to 16.4 per cent.

Besides, these investors shed more than 1 per cent holding in Vedanta, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Infosys, ICICI Bank, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), State Bank of India (SBI) among others.

While FIIs holding increased in ITC by 5.24 percentage points to 20.71 per cent, followed by Cipla, wherein foreign investors shored up their stake by 4.22 percentage points to 22.51 per cent.

Further, these investors raised their exposure in Sun Pharmaceuticals, Bajaj Auto, Bharti Airtel, Mahindra & Mahindra and Larsen & Toubro among others.