-5.85 (-0.46%) Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) are continuing their buying spree in ICICI Bank, with their holdings in the country’s leading private sector lender touching a six-year high of 39.85% in the January-March period of 2014. FIIs bought an additional 1.46 percentage points stake in the bank during Q4FY14. FIIs held 38.39% stake in the bank during the October-December quarter.
Moreover, the current FII holding of 39.85% in the country’s second largest private sector bank in terms of market capitalization is the highest in six years. The level stood at 40.30% during the quarter ended March 31, 2008. FIIs held as much as 46.4% stake in ICICI Bank during the December 2004 quarter.
This was the second quarterly increase in FII holding in ICICI Bank. In the past two quarters, FIIs hiked their stake in ICICI Bank by 2.31 percentage points from 37.54% at the end of September 30, 2013 quarter.
Meanwhile, Life Insurance Corporation of India has reduced its holdings in ICICI Bank to 8.74% in the March quarter from 9.7% in the December quarter. The insurance giant held 10.46% stake in the bank at the end of September quarter.