After hitting a four-month low in the month of April, the share of foreign portfolio investments (FPI) in domestic capital markets through participatory notes (P-notes) have surprisingly surged to a 7-month high of Rs 1.81 lakh crore at the end of May, despite stringent norms put in place by SEBI to curb inflow of illicit funds. This was highest since October last year, when the cumulative value of such investments stood at Rs 1,99,987 crore. According to Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) data, total value of P-note investments in Indian markets including equity, debt and derivatives, at May-end, has climbed to Rs 180,718 crore, from Rs 1,68,545 crore at the end of April. Prior to that, the total investment value through P-notes stood at Rs 178,437 crore in March-end and Rs 170,191 crore in February-end.
Of the total, P-note holdings at May-end in equities were at Rs 109,211 crore, while in debts and derivatives were at Rs 23,834 crore and Rs 47,674 crore respectively. The quantum of FPI investments via P-notes rose to 6.3 percent in May from 6 percent in the preceding month. P-notes are issued by registered Foreign Portfolio Investors to overseas investors who wish to be a part of the Indian stock markets without registering themselves directly. They however need to go through a proper due diligence process.
SEBI had tightened P-note norms by levying a fee of $1,000 on each instrument and barred their issuance for speculative purposes to check any misuse for channelising black money. At the same time, the capital markets regulator had decided to relax the entry norms for foreign portfolio investors willing to invest directly in Indian markets rather than through participatory notes. The new measures follow a slew of other steps taken by the regulator in the recent past.
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