'India is vulnerable to the West Asia crisis in three ways: Energy costs, the business Indian companies conduct in the region, and remittances from the Indian diaspora.'
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) significantly increased their buying in Indian equities during the first half of August, with financial services attracting the largest inflows, reversing previous outflows. The IT sector also continued to see strong interest from overseas investors, driven by a reassessment of valuations and the role of Indian IT firms in AI deployment.
Smallcap and midcap funds now account for nearly 30% of active equity MF folios, as stock-market gains revive investor appetite for high-growth segments.
'A favourable base, last year's policy measures, the carryover impact of a good monsoon and improving earnings should all help.'
Net inflows into smallcap funds surged 39 per cent M-o-M to a record Rs 7,768 crore, while midcap fund inflows rose marginally to Rs 6,192 crore.
'Healthy double-digit returns are still possible, though a sharp rally is unlikely.'
The divergence between the Sensex and Nifty closing values narrowed on the third day of the Closing Auction Session (CAS) rollout, but market participants, including Zerodha's Nithin Kamath, highlight structural issues and the unfortunate timing of its introduction alongside new RBI norms.
The Nifty and Sensex outperformed Asian peers in South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and China.
Liquidity stress in smallcap funds has fallen to its lowest level since February 2024, with the average time to liquidate 50% of portfolios dropping to 27 days in June from a peak of 44.2 days in January 2026, driven by a sharp recovery in smallcap stocks and increased trading volumes.
'The market is currently neither cheap enough to be exciting about nor expensive enough to worry about.'
At Rs 4.07 trillion, gross inflows were just shy of the record Rs 4.34 trillion mobilised in H2 of 2024, making it the second half-yearly period in which inflows crossed Rs 4 trillion.
The change comes at a time when online MF distributors are increasingly moving investors from the SoA mode to demat holdings.
FPIs have already withdrawn Rs 2.6 trillion from Indian equities in 2026, exceeding the outflows recorded in any previous full calendar year.
Investor interest in precious metal exchange-traded funds (ETFs) rebounded sharply in June, with silver ETFs attracting an estimated 4,900 crore and gold ETFs around 2,900 crore in net inflows, following a significant correction in gold and silver prices.
SBI Funds Management, India's largest asset management company, has set its IPO price band between 545 and Rs 574 per share, valuing the company at 1.2 trillion. The management explained the 'moderate' valuation aims to instil investor confidence amidst market uncertainty, while also highlighting plans for AI integration, expansion into GIFT City, and new alternative investment funds.
International mutual fund schemes have seen a significant resurgence in investor interest, attracting approximately Rs 7,600 crore in net inflows over the past year, a stark reversal from previous outflows, driven by their strong outperformance against domestic markets and limited AI-linked investment opportunities in India.
Pre-listing shareholder lock-ins for 53 companies, valued at $11 billion, are set to expire between July and September, according to an analysis by Nuvama Institutional Equities, though not all shares are expected to flood the open market.
'The Rs 30,954 crore inflows recorded in May 2026 reflects around 16 per cent year-on-year rise.'
Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) returns for smallcap and midcap mutual funds have seen a significant rebound, with average one-year SIP returns now at 19.1 per cent for smallcap funds and 13.5 per cent for midcap funds, according to Value Research data. This recovery is expected to revive momentum in the retail mutual fund industry, which had experienced a moderation in growth indicators.
Despite the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) and the government's recent initiatives to attract foreign capital, which are expected to alleviate pressure on long-duration bonds, most debt fund managers are maintaining a cautious stance, favouring shorter-duration papers due to global uncertainties and potential future rate hikes.
