FIIs Vs DIIs: Different strokes

The difference in views couldn't have been starker. The money-bags from overseas are rallying their support behind sectors that domestic institutions don't like that much. That pretty much sums up how Foreign Portfolio Investors and Domestic Institutional Investors are positioned right now. Let's have a closer look at the differences, based on a recent report on institutional buys and sells in the stock market by ICICI Securities. Foreign Portfolio Investors continued to prefer sectors with strong earnings visibility in the March quarter. The sectors where they had overweight stances were NBFCs, Telecom, Private banks and Pharma. Amongst their top underweight sectors were core economy plays such as Energy, Capital goods and PSU banks. Overall, FPIs lightened their position in PSU banks and capital goods and increased their positions in Energy. DIIs in contrast had overweight stances in Consumer Staples, Metals, Energy, Infra and PSU banks. Amongst the sectors where they had overweight positions, they reduced exposure to Energy this quarter. Amongst their top underweight sectors were the core FPI plays such as Private banks, NBFC and Pharma. FPI activity FPIs trimmed their positions across a range of Nifty stocks in the quarter, with their aggregate holding dipping marginally (10 basis points) to 28.8%. According to the report, FPIs have trimmed their holding in 31 Nifty stocks including Vedanta, DLF, PNB, L&T, Bharti Airtel, Adani Ports and Britannia (compared to 30 in previous quarter). The reduction has been quite significant (more than 2%) in three stocks - Cipla, Tata Motors and DrReddys. Significantly, FPI holding is at a 2 year high in BPCL and Wipro, and at a 2 year low in 12 Nifty stocks including ACC, Hind