The surge in FII exposure to India has resulted from the $665 million inflowwitnessed during April. Foreign investors made the best of a falling marketduring the month when the picked up shares at attractive levels. Asubstantial chunk of this inflow is attributed to the $490 million coming infrom the US-based Janus Funds, which has picked up 5.64 per cent of Reliance Industries shares from the secondary market.

During April, the inflows were sustained with the net transaction remainingpositive on all days except April 18, 24 and 26 when there was a net inflow.On April 29 the markets once again witnessed huge buy orders from FIIs withthe net inflow for that day being Rs 278 crore.

The inflows during April is significant as it comes at a time when bigoperators have been caught on the wrong foot following the sharp fall in the Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex led by the technology stocks. What appeared tobe a bearish market for the Indian public and domestic institutions after alacklustre budget, turned out to be an opportunity for the FIIs. The totalnet foreign institutional investment (FII)for April adds up to Rs 2968crore, which accounts for 42 per cent of the total net inflow of Rs 7,380crore for the year 2000.