Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) have sold shares worth R22,000 crore or $3.5 billion in FY15. This outflow, despite mutual funds having poured in nearly R38,600 crore in the equity market during the year, indicates that insurance players, especially LIC may have taken advantage of this rally by booking profits.
Since the late 2014 couple of months LIC was believed to have realised profits as the government was closing in to meet its divestment target for FY15. The insurance behemoth sold shares in Axis bank, HPCL, Tata Communication and Bank of Baroda (BoB) in the year in which it brought close to R10,200 crore worth of shares in Coal India OFS.
The net DII figures have stayed negative each year since FY10 when the net purchases stood at R24,132 crore. What again is believed to be an LIC led buying move, the DIIs were net purchasers of R57,849 crore of shares in FY09 when the market tanked 38% in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.
