Despite aggressive selling by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) in the domestic equity markets over the past eight months, several lesser-known stocks have managed to capture their attention, as reflected in recent shareholding patterns.
Data showed that certain small-cap stocks have seen a significant rise in FII ownership from 0% at December 2024 to up to 59% at the end of June 2025, highlighting targeted FII optimism even in a broadly negative investing environment.
Market watchers believe that a mix of factors, including muted Q1 earnings, high valuations and US-India trade frictions, has led FIIs to shift focus to other emerging markets such as Korea, Latin America, and China.
Coming to the top stocks, Iconik Sports and Events, a company engaged in the management, promotion and execution of sports leagues, tournaments, and events across various disciplines, emerged as the favourites of global investors. FIIs held a 59.20% stake in the company as of June 30, 2025, against ‘Nil’ holding as of December 31,2024.
Blue Pearl Agriventures has also found favour, with FII shareholding climbing to 23.24% for the quarter ended June 2025 from zero at the end of last year. Dugar Housing Developments also witnessed FII holdings soar to 22%, suggesting keen global investor interest in select real estate opportunities.
It was followed by Sera Investments & Finance India, which now counts 16.1% of its shares held by FIIs, again up from nil. Among the other major bets, Continental Seeds and Chemicals attracted 12.88% FII ownership, highlighting the resurging interest in the agrochemicals sector.
A handful of others, like Unifinz Capital India, Checkpoint Trends, Bafna Pharmaceuticals, RACL Geartech, Looks Health Services, Midwest Gold, Moksh Ornaments, Avro India, Pratik Panels and Softrak Venture Investment all saw their FII shareholding leap from 0% in December 2024 to between 5% and nearly 11% as of June 2025. This is especially impressive, coming at a time when FIIs have offloaded shares worth nearly Rs 1.17 lakh crore in the ongoing calendar year till August 20.
V.K. Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments, said, “Going forward, the FII activity will be influenced by the action on the tariff front. Latest news of easing of tensions between the US and Russia and no further sanctions on Russia indicate that the secondary tariff of 25% imposed on India is unlikely to come into effect after August 27th. This is a positive. Another positive factor which can influence FII behaviour is the rating agency S&P raising India’s credit rating from BBB- to BBB.”