Mumbai, July 11: Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) have invested Rs 1,300.5 crore in the domestic stock markets during June. This is the highest net monthly investment in the current year. The net FII investments, up to July 9, stands at Rs 206.6 crore. The 100 per cent debt funds registered so far have made net investments of Rs 382.1 crore, according to latest SEBI figures.

FII investments had made a slow start this year, picking up once the budget was presented. From Rs 320.1 crore in January and Rs 318.2 crore in February, investments rocketed to Rs 680 crore in March, before touching the high June figure. The total FII investments during the year thus has gone up to Rs 4,073 crore. The total, to date, stands at Rs 28,498.5 crore. The highest monthly net investment over the past four years has been Rs 1,566.5 crore in February, 1996. The total number of FIIs registered with Sebi till July 9 was 462.

According to a SEBI analysis of the trend, a noteworthy feature of the June investments is the level of gross purchases and sales. Gross purchases stand at Rs 2,583 crore, while gross sales amounted to Rs 1,282.5 crore. These levels are the highest since the FIIs began investing in the country in November, 1992. The analysis also shows that daily purchases by FIIs in June, 1997, were more than Rs 150 crore on five days, while daily sales were high on two days. On June 16, daily purchases by FIIs were at their monthly highest at Rs 249 crore, but sales, at Rs 206.1 crore, too were high, resulting in a net investment of Rs 42.9 crore.

The FII interest in the domestic markets is primarily because some of the other emerging markets like Thailand and Malaysia are not doing well, according to fund managers. The SEBI analysis shows that from the experience of the past four years, it appears that FII investments in domestic securities have been driven by relative valuations of markets with respect to other emerging and developed markets, besides the expectations of growth in corporate profits, industrial production and in the overall economy. It concludes that the levels of FII investment in recent months are consistent with this trend.