After HDFC, People's Bank of China invested in these bluechips last fiscal | Economic Times

At a time when Chinese investments in Indian equities are in the crosshairs, a sift through the latest available annual reports of Nifty 50 companies reveals that People’s Bank of China (PBOC) increased stake by 25% and 34.3% in Asian Paints and Ambuja Cements respectively in the previous fiscal year. The Chinese central bank held 30.9 lakh shares in Asian Paints and 62.8 lakh shares in Ambuja Cements or 0.32% stake in each of the two companies.The combined value of these holdings was Rs 630 crore considering average stock prices in FY20. At the end of March 2020, PBOC held around Rs 4,418 crore worth of stakes in HDFC, Asian Paints and Ambuja Cements.Ambuja Cements’ financial year ends in December whereas that of Asian Paints ends in March.ET has learnt from a source in the know on the condition of anonymity that PBOC further raised its stake by 10 basis points in Asian Paints to 0.33% in the June quarter. An email query to Asian Paints and Ambuja Cements about PBOC’s stake in the June 2020 quarter remained unanswered.In April, news reports on PBOC’s stake purchase in HDFC had given rise to speculations and concerns over the Chinese central bank’s investment strategy. An HDFC spokesperson confirmed that PBOC held under 1% stake in the lender at the end of June 2020. “They (PBOC) are like any other fund which buys and sells in the open market.They are not in touch with us,” he added.The global central banks had Rs 67,090 crore worth of assets under management (AUM) in Indian equities in June 2020 compared with Rs 64,600 crore a year ago, according to the NSDL data. Their share was 2.6% in the total investments by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) in Indian equities. According to a Bloomberg report, the global central banks hold nearly $1 trillion of equity assets globally in a bid to find ways to keep their reserves growing after their easy monetary policies suppressed bond yields worldwide.