Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday said individual persons residing outside India (PROI) will be permitted equity investments in listed Indian companies through a portfolio investment scheme.
Non-resident Indians (NRIs) haven't gone big on the Indian stock market story despite the post-pandemic boom. While domestic participation through mutual funds (MFs) and dematerialised accounts has soared, NRI participation figures show limited signs of a similar rise.
In order to attract inflow of foreign currency, the Reserve Bank on Tuesday simplified rules governing investments by non-resident Indians (NRIs) portfolio investments like equities and debt.
The Reserve Bank on Friday said FII investment in MindTree has reached the trigger limit under portfolio investment scheme and purchase of further equity shares of company will require its approval.
At present, foreign direct investment and foreign institutional investments are added to determine sectoral foreign investment cap in banking, credit information companies, broadcasting, commodity exchanges and telecom. But, with RBI allowing FIIs to acquire shares in companies under the portfolio investment scheme, the government is now likely to mandate that sectoral caps would henceforth be for FDI investment only, official sources said.
According to guidelines for foreign investment in commodity exchanges, a composite ceiling of 49 per cent was allowed, comprising 23 per cent under Portfolio Investment Scheme and 26 per cent under FDI Scheme. However, some of the existing commodity bourses had foreign investment above the permitted level.
Realty FII norms, which were recently put outside the purview of Press Note 2 (2005), are vague about pre-IPO investments.
The move to delink the FDI provisions from investments by foreign institutional investors in real estate under the portfolio investment scheme was expected to lead to greater stock market play in real estate scrips. Government sources said the clarification was not mentioned in the minutes of the Cabinet meeting sent to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion recently. As a consequence, a press note could not be issued.
PINS -- or Portfolio Investment Scheme -- is the permission that a Non-Resident Indian requires to trade in the Indian stock market. Normally, the bank obtains this for you. An NRI can have only one PINS account current at one time.
The Reserve Bank of India said Airtel's board of directors and shareholders have passed resolutions agreeing to increase the limit on the purchase of its equity shares and convertible debentures by foreign institutional investors.
In April 2015, the regulator issued a show cause notice to the bank for alleged violation of portfolio managers' norms with respect to one relationship manager.
Foreign share holding limit in Maruti Suzuki India has reached trigger limit and any further investment by FIIs will be allowed only after RBI's approval.
HDFC Bank's shares fell by 3.46 per cent to close the day at Rs 659 on the BSE. In intra-day session, the scrip lost 4 per cent to Rs 655.10.
The Indian diaspora remain bullish despite single-digit equity market returns since May 2014, says Pavan Burugula.
Preliminary investigations conducted by capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India and inputs from other regulators and government departments suggest that some brokers were offering structured financial products to their HNI clients under some portfolio investments schemes for high returns of 10-20 per cent.
Infosys, TCS, ICICI Bank and Sun Pharma among the top losers of the hour.
BSE Metal and Capital Goods indices plunged over 2% followed by counters like Consumer Durables, Auto, Banks and Realty, all falling down between 1-2%.
Financials are the top gainers along with index heavyweights.
Disclose foreign assets, redesignate NRO a/c and open a Resident Foreign Currency a/c to park forex earnings
The 30-share Sensex ended down 35 points at 26,349 and the 50-share Nifty ended down 20 points at 7,864.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances