Long-term players unfazed by sell-off, stay bullish on India .............

Long-term players unfazed by sell-off, stay bullish on India
Pension & University Funds, Charity Foundations And Endowments Among Those Seeking Registration With Sebi
Jigar Pathak MUMBAI
LONG-TERM players like pension funds and endowment funds from foreign shores continued to get registered with the Indian market regulator even as FIIs have pulled out over $10 billion from the Indian markets so far this year. Nearly 238 new FIIs have got registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) since January this year and 24 of them came in the last month alone when the market witnessed sharp sell off. The overall number of FIIs and their sub accounts registered with Sebi now stands at 1,543 and 4,767, respectively. And a good number of these players are long-term investors like pension funds, foundations, endowments, university funds, charitable societies and teachers retirements funds. According to analysts tracking pension funds, more than 140 pension funds have signed up with Sebi and about 50-odd such funds from various geographies like the US, Australia and New Zealand have come in the last one year. Top retirement funds that have come to Indian shores this year include American Airways, British Airways and American Legacy Foundation, an anti tobacco foundation. Saurabh Mukherjea, head of Indian equities, Nobel, said:“Pension and such funds are considered to be sacred funds and entry of such funds means a long term investment horizon for the Indian markets. Also with the dwindling Q2 earnings many cash strap companies are really finding it difficult to raise funds for their working capital. We might see lots of PIPE deals in the coming month from such funds even at the cost of greater equity dilution for the companies.” Interestingly, funds from Mauritius continued to dominate the new registration. Of the 24 new FIIs registered last month, 11 FIIs have seen taking the Mauritius route owing to the favourable tax regime. Many India and Asia-Pacific focused funds that managed to raise their money before the market meltdown and were sitting on the fence for the market to cool off are also now turning to the Indian markets for investments. “The increasing number of FIIs getting registered with the Sebi is a good sign for the Indian markets. FIIs are always known to enter the markets at the lower levels and current levels are too tempting for them to miss. Given the growth potential that India carries, it would certainly have an edge over other emerging markets and once the liquidity situation improves we might see a full-fledged participation by the FIIs,” Mithun Banerjee, vice-president-quantitative Research, Antique Finance said.