FII Ownership in Indian Equity Securities: The Firm-Level Determinants

Abstract

This paper studies the stock ownership in Indian firms by Foreign Institutional Investors during 2013 to 2015. Several firm-level characteristics are used to measure the extent to which information asymmetry affects the level of FII ownership in these firms. The analysis reveals that the firm-size and the book-to-market ratio are significant variables in selecting the equity investments by this investor group. There is not much empirical support for beta or the export ratio as determinants of firm-level ownership. In their holdings of large-firm stocks, there is a strong evidence that FIIs prefer to hold more shares of high exports firms.