Foreign holdings of certain India bonds near record on index inclusion bets

Foreign investors have increased their holdings of Indian government bonds that have no ownership restrictions to just under a record $12 billion amid expectations of domestic bonds' inclusion in global indexes. Foreign ownership of bonds under the Fully Accessible Route (FAR) is at 966 billion rupees ($11.63 billion), or around 2.85% of the total outstanding bonds under this category, as of Sept. 14. These investors have bought bonds worth 24.6 billion rupees, on a net basis, so far this month, adding to purchases of 45.3 billion rupees in August and 26.6 billion rupees in July, data from Clearing Corp of India showed.