The FIIs, who had withdrawn nearly Rs 1800 crore during May and June, had cooled their heels during July.

However, there is no positive sign of a resurgence in FII investments, which is reflected in the sharp fall in the Sensex to around the 3,000-level. The uncertainty on the political front, the tension on the border besides the negative corporate performance in the first quarter, especially bluechips, have all kept the FIIs at bay.

Although FII investments had shown a reversal during the two weeks ended July 17 and July 24, on week-on-week basis net investments during the week ended July 31 was substantially down by about 54per cent to Rs 38.7 crore ($ 9.6 million).

During the week, net FII investment stood at Rs 38.7 crore against net investments of Rs 90.4 crore (US$ 22.3 million) and Rs 83.4 crore (US$ 20.6 million) during the weeks ended July 17 and July 24 respectively.

During the week ended July 31, gross purchases at Rs 220.4 crore was also substantially lower than gross purchases of Rs 397.2 crore and Rs 314.6 crore during the previous two weeks, respectively.

However, for the full month ended July 31 net FII investments in equities was Rs 106.6 crore (US$ 26.3 million) against a net outflow of Rs 804.9 crore (US$ 190.5 million) during June 1998.

While the gross purchases during July grew substantially by 72 per cent to Rs 1,382.1 crore from Rs 802.3 crore, gross sales declined by 20.6 per cent to Rs 1,275.5 crore from Rs 1,607.2 crore.

In the debt segment, during the week ended July 31, the FIIs remained net sellers with a net outflow of Rs 5.3 crore (US$ 1.3 million).