India-focused offshore funds, ETF invest $140-million in August

New Delhi: India-focused offshore equity funds and ETFs have registered a net investment of USD 140 million in August, making it the lowest inflow for the category this year so far, according to a Morningstar report.

With this, total inflow has reached to over USD 5.3 billion in the first eight months of the year.

The offshore India fund -- not domiciled in India -- receives flow from overseas investors and in turn, invests the money in the Indian markets.

According to the report, India-focused offshore equity funds registered net inflow of USD 179 million, while India- focused offshore ETFs (exchange-traded funds) posted net outflow of USD 39 million, taking the total to USD 140 million.

In comparison, the total inflow stood at USD 561 million in July, while it was USD 350 million in January.

"ETF category is under stress. The good part is, though in lesser quantum, the money is still flowing in and that too in India focused offshore funds which are more long-term in nature than India focused offshore ETF, which are short-term in nature," Himanshu Srivastava, senior analyst manager research at Morningstar said.

Srivastava attributed the lower inflow to rising geopolitical tension mainly due to a stiff stand-off between the US and North Korea and profit booking.

"Indian stock markets have done significantly better over the last few years. This coupled with rupee appreciation has given overseas investors a good profit booking opportunity. If seen from the perspective of global risk aversion, for them it is a good opportunity to capitalise on," he added.

Going ahead, Srivastava said the geopolitical risk is the major factor that may have an adverse impact on foreign flows. If the tension between the US and North Korea continues or aggravates, this will increase the geopolitical risk and in that condition, the outflow may continue.