Foreign funds bought a net 9.67 billion rupees ($196.4 million) of Indian stocks yesterday, taking their investments in equities this year to 272.8 billion rupees, according to the nation’s market regulator. Foreigners bought 40.2 billion rupees of shares and sold 30.6 billion rupees, the Securities & Exchange Board of India said on its website today. The flows helped the BSE India Sensitive Index rebound 19 percent from its December low, approaching the 20 percent mark that signals a bull market. Inflows from overseas surged to a record 1.33 trillion rupees in 2010, making the Sensex the best performer among the world’s top 10 markets. The largest-ever outflow in 2008 led the biggest annual slump of 52 percent. Offshore funds bought a net 4.23 billion rupees of bonds, taking flows into debt this year to 170.9 billion rupees, the data show. They put 421 billion rupees in bonds last year. Investments in debt have increased after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government raised the cap on foreign ownership of bonds by 20 percent to $60 billion in November to arrest a slide in the rupee, Asia’s worst performer in 2011. Foreigners have invested 4.717 trillion rupees in stocks and 1.378 trillion rupees in bonds since they were allowed into the country in 1993. The regulator provides data on shares bought and sold by large investors, including trades in the primary and secondary markets, with a delay of at least a day. To contact the reporter on this story: Paresh Jatakia in Mumbai at pareshj@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Arijit Ghosh at aghosh@bloomberg.net

Source