Portfolio investors (FIIs) have jacked up their holding in a majority of private banks in the first quarter of 2003-04.

The foreign institutional investors have, in fact, increased their stake in as many as five private Indian banks, while in two others their stake has remained unchanged.

They had exposure to 9 private sector banks as on June 30, 2003. They have reduced their stake in one bank marginally, while in another they offloaded their entire holding.

As many as 11 private sector banks are listed on bourses out of a total of 19.

The FIIs had exposure in only nine of them, while all financial institutions have exposure in all of these 11 banks.

But the aggregate holding of FIs including FIIs in such banks has, however declined in a majority of the private banks, while in five others their holding has increased marginally.

FIIs increased their stakes in banks like HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, IndusInd, J&K Bank, and UTI Bank. Their holding in Bank of Rajasthan, and Global Trust Bank, has remained the same.

India Inc Fund the only foreign institutional stake holder however has offloaded its entire one per cent stake in IDBI Bank. Total FI holding in the bank has also declined to 7.6 per cent from 9.11 per cent in March 2003.

UTI Bank was a single case where FII holding rose while total FI holding has declined though marginally in both cases.

At J& K Bank, FIIs increased stake by almost 2 per cent despite India liberalisation Fund offloading its entire stake. FI holding however grew by almost 4 per cent.

Federal Bank has suffered a large decline in FI holding which fell almost three per cent in the first quarter to 26.44 per cent. FIIs have also reduced their stake in the bank by one per cent and India Fund Inc has offloaded its entire stake.

Invest India Mauritius has increased its stake in IndusInd by 2.3 per cent while aggregate FI holding has also increased by 2.26 per cent to 8.72 per cent.

Although HDFC Bank witnessed a rise in FII holding by 1.27 per cent, two FII, the Government of Singapore holding 1.6 per cent and T Rowe Price International Inc holding another one per cent has offloaded their entire holding.

FI holding at the bank also increased marginally to 30.88 per cent.

At ICICI, FII -- Templeton Global Advisors have enhanced their holding by around 2 per cent and their total holding has increased from 38.40 per cent in Q1 to 39.59 per cent in June 2003.

Total FI holding including FII stake for the bank has however declined marginally to 59.64 per cent.

BoR, and Karnataka Bank witnessed rise in FI holding while, South Indian Bank witnessed rising FI holding.