According to a study by the brokerage division of global financial services major Citigroup, promoter holding went up to 58 per cent in the BSE-500 companies in the second quarter this fiscal from 54 per cent in the previous three-month period. In contrast, FIIs, mutual funds, banks, insurance companies and retail investors cut down their holdings.

"For the latest quarter, promoter ownership has gone up, while ownership of all other categories has come down. This has been mainly due to stronger performance of high promoter stake companies, rather than a major sell down by any category of investors," Citigroup's India research head Ratnesh Kumar said.

According to Citigroup Research analysis of the ownership patterns, the BSE-500 company saw a fall in FII holdings to 20.2 per cent in July-September from 22 per cent in the previous quarter.

Domestic mutual funds also reduced their holding to 3.7 per cent in the period under review from 4.3 per cent, while insurance firms and other institutions reduced their stake to five per cent from 5.5 per cent.

The companies also saw retail investors cutting down their stake to 9.2 per cent from the 10 per cent. Among the 30 blue-chip firms comprising the benchmark Sensex, FII holdings amount to about 26 per cent, while promoters own about 49.3 per cent stake in the companies.

Financial institutions and retail investors together hold the remaining stake.  The BSE-500 firms with highest rise in promoter holdings include Bharti Airtel [Get Quote], Adlabs Films [Get Quote], Mphasis, MICO and Adani Enterprises [Get Quote]. Adlabs Films saw a jump of 12 per cent in the promoter holdings over the three-month period, while Bharti Airtel witnessed an increase of five per cent.

The total capitalisation of the Indian stock market rose by more than Rs 10 trillion to Rs 52.2 trillion in July-September, while the benchmark Sensex rose by about 2,200 points (over 17 per cent) during the period.

According to Citigroup, the ownership patterns have changed considerably in India over the last five years, with foreign ownership rising from just 12 per cent in 2001 to over 20 per cent at present. However, the domestic fund ownership has come down.

According to sectoral analysis, FIIs continued to remain bullish on industrial, financial, material and telecom sectors. However, their interest in the financial sector declined for the fifth consecutive quarter.

In contrast, insurance companies were not so bullish on industrials and were seen favouring the consumer space. The most under-owned sectors by insurance companies are energy, IT and telecom.