India's financials lead foreign inflows in first half of December

** More than half the foreign portfolio investor (FPI) inflows into Indian equities in the first half of December 2023 went to financial services stocks, data from National Securities Depository shows

** FPIs made record fortnightly purchases, buying shares worth 427.33 bln rupees in the period

** During this period, 228.91 bln rupees went into financial services; highest fortnightly foreign inflows into the sector ever

** Financials-linked indexes like banks BANKNIFTY, financial services CNXFINANCE, private banks (.NIFPVTBNK) and Nifty public sector banks CNXPSUBANK rose 7.3%-14.5% in the first half of December, versus a 6.57% rise in benchmark Nifty 50 index NIFTY

** Several brokerages including, Motilal Oswal, Emkay Global, Phillip Capital reiterated bullish view on the sector, in the last two weeks

** Morgan Stanley says India's growth is likely to be capex driven, accompanied by improving credit availability, setting stage for outperformance of financials

** Besides financials, FPIs also bought Indian shares in auto, healthcare, capital goods, consumer services, telecom and information technology, while energy stocks saw selling