15 Chinese biggies among portfolio investors
People's Bank Of China is also registered as a category 1 FPI
MUMBAI: Fifteen foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) with deep pockets from China figure among category I FPIs registered with national depository NSDL. While the stock market has seen massive inflows from FPIs, country-wise investments are not known to the public. A section of the investor community believes that depositories and regulators disclosing such investment break-up will help retail investors take more informed decisions.
FPIs have invested Rs 43,677 crore so far in this calendar year, of which Rs 24,204 crore has come in February and Rs 19,473 crore in January. The FPIs invested Rs 170,262 crore in the Indian equity market last year. Hundreds of Category I FPIs from rich countries are present in India, including from the US (2,899), Canada (641), Singapore (322), Saudi Arabia (28), UK (512), Japan (407), Mauritius (399), Germany (102), UAE (41), Norway (23) and Hong Kong (99). Category I FPIs are defined by Securities and Exchange Board of India as government and government-related foreign investors such as central banks, sovereign wealth funds and pension funds.
Big Chinese category IFPIs in India include The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, seen as a potential rival to the World Bank and the IMF. Best Investment Corporation is another Chinese financial firm, which offers financial services to clients throughout China.
A top asset management company is China Asset Management Company, which provides a full range of services to retail and institutional investors home and abroad, covering equity, fixed income, money markets and the like. It has assets under management of $245.5 billion (RMB 1.59 trillion) as of December 31, 2020, together with 60,000 institutional clients and 164 million retail investors.
CIFM Asia Pacific Advantage Fund, another AMC, with more than 150 billion RMB ($21.15 billion) of AUM at the end of 2019 is likely to be taken over by J.P. Morgan Asset Management as China has scrapped foreign ownership limits in mutual fund firms last year.
Flourish Investment Corporation is owned by government-controlled China Investment Corporation.
National Social Security Fund (NSSF), a pension fund operated by Chinese government, had $316.18 billion in assets at the end of 2018. The NSSF provides Chinese workers with social security. People's Bank Of China, valued at $3.21 trillion, is also registered as Category I FPI. PBOC has the largest financial asset holdings of any central bank in the world.