Foreign institutional investors have offloaded shares worth nearly Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion) in 23 Indian companies, such as mortgage lender HDFC and Bombay Dyeing, among others, so far in 2011.

According to an analysis, 10 foreign fund houses, such as Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Securities and JP Morgan, sold shares of Indian companies worth Rs 2,939 crore (Rs 29.39 billion) through open market transactions on the Bombay Stock Exchange in 2011.

At the same time, eight overseas investors bought shares of 10 other firms, including Cairn India, for Rs 1,811 crore (Rs 18.11 billion) during the same period.

Analysts said this is just a normal stock market purchase and sale done by an institutional investor and is more of basket selling by some big client.

"It seems that one of the big clients has offloaded its holdings in the open market, while another one has bought it. It may also be that the client has changed its fund house," Religare Securities executive vice president and head (retail research) Rajesh Jain said.

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Overseas clients invest in shares of Indian companies through participatory notes issued by fund houses.

Morgan Stanley Mauritius Company sold its holdings to the tune of Rs 1,368 crore (Rs 13.68 billion) in 12 firms, including Bajaj Finserv, Bombay Dyeing, VIP Industries, United Breweries Holdings, Garware Wall, Prime Focus and Subex, among others.

Similarly, Citigroup sold shares worth Rs 1,249 crore (Rs 12.49 billion) in five companies, namely HDFC, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services, Zenith Computers, JBF Industries and Marg, through the bulk deal window.

Further, Deutsche Securities Mauritius sold 2.5 lakh (250,000) shares of Eicher Motors for Rs 25.50 crore (Rs 255 million).

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In addition, UBS Securities sold its stake in Consolidated Construction, JPMorgan Special Situations (Mauritius) offloaded its holding in Cable Corp and HSBC Global Investment Funds sold its shares in NCC.

What is more, T Rowe Price International Funds, Master Trust BK of Japan, Merrill Lynch Capital Markets Espana and BankAmerica International Financial Corp offloaded stake in Allied Digital, Indoco Remedies, Marg and Zuari Industries, respectively.

The biggest share purchase deal was done in Cairn India's counter as Broad Peak Mauritius and Merrill Lynch Capital Markets Espana together bought shares valued at Rs 1,706 crore (Rs 17.06 billion).

Besides, DSP BlackRock Mutual Fund, ITF Mauritius, Credit Suisse (Singapore), Goldman Sachs Investments Mauritius, Deutsche Securities Mauritius and Citigroup Global Market Mauritius took stakes in Indian firms during 2011.