Mumbai: Overseas investors funnelled the largest allocations into capital goods, financials and oil & gas shares in the first half of February as they pumped ₹33,487 crore across 15 sectors during the period – their highest fortnightly purchases since the second half of April 2025.

Capital Goods shares received ₹8,032 crore in the period February 1-15, up from ₹2,761 crore in January, with the government’s stake sale in BHEL worth ₹4,470 crore partly contributing to the inflows.

“The capital goods sector has underperformed the market, and there was nothing negative in the budget on the sector which could have prompted global investors to reallocate funds,” said Siddarth Bhamre, head of Research, Asit C Mehta Intermediates.

Rajesh Singhla, CEO & Fund Manager, Alpha AIF, said sectors such as capital goods, textiles, gems and jewellery benefited from the US-India trade deal framework announced in the first week of the month, which is likely to have triggered foreign inflows.

Financial services saw foreign investment worth ₹6,175 crore in the first 15 days of February, after witnessing selling of ₹8,592 crore in January. Singhla said banks and financial services reported a strong set of numbers in the third quarter, which could have attracted foreign investment, though sector valuations are not very attractive.

Foreign investors bought shares worth ₹4,678 crore in the oil & gas sector in the first half of February.
Among sectors that saw selling, global investors dumped ₹13,812 crore across eight sectors in the first half of February, with IT accounting for over ₹10,000 crore of the total. The sector bore the brunt of foreign selling in 2025 as investors offloaded nearly ₹75,000 crore, the highest among sectors, amid worries about the impact of AI-related disruption on the software services exporters’ prospects. “Fears of AI making the sector less labour-intensive could spark further selling,” said Bhamre. “Overseas investors have shifted allocation from services to pockets in the real economy in this fortnight.”

The Nifty IT index has slumped almost 15% so far this year, while the benchmark Nifty is down 2.6% in the same period.

“The foreign selling in IT stocks was due to fears of the earnings trending lower as the threat of disruptions due to AI loomed large, but most of the selling was sentimental, and the sell-off was an overreaction,” said Singhla.

Omnitech Engineering, a manufacturer of precision-engineered components, on Friday fixed a price band of Rs 216-227 per share for its Rs 583 crore upcoming Initial Public Offering (IPO).

At the upper end, the company is valued at over Rs 2,800 crore.

The company’s initial share sale will open for public consumption on February 25 and conclude on February 27, while the bidding for anchor investors will take place on February 24, according to a public announcement.

The IPO is a combination of fresh issuance of equity shares worth up to Rs 418 crore and an offer for sale component of equity shares valued at Rs 165 crore by promoter Udaykumar Arunkumar Parekh.

Proceeds from the fresh issue will be utilised to repay debt, set up two new manufacturing facilities, fund capital expenditure requirements and general corporate purposes.

Omnitech Engineering manufactures high-precision engineered components and supplies to global customers across industries like energy, motion control & automation, industrial equipment systems, and other diversified industrial applications.
Its clientele includes Halliburton Energy Services, Suzlon, Oshkosh Aerotech, Weatherford, Lufkin Industries, Oilgear, Donaldson Company, PUSH Industries and Bharat Aerospace Metals. Rajkot-based Omnitech Engineering will compete with the likes of Azad Engineering, Unimech Aerospace and Manufacturing, PTC Industries, Dynamatic Technologies and MTAR Technologies.

The company said that half of the issue size has been reserved for qualified institutional investors, 35 per cent for retail investors and the remaining 15 per cent for non-institutional investors.

Omnitech Engineering will make its stock market debut on March 5. The IPO is being managed by Equirus Capital, and ICICI Securities.

The office market delivered an ‘exceptionally positive year’ in 2025, according to a new report

Office rents in Bristol are expected to continue rising amid soaring demand for commercial space in the South West. Annual take-up of workspace in and around the city reached 926,000 sq ft last year – 21 per cent above the five-year average and eight per cent above the 10-year average – according to Avison Young’s latest Big Nine Report. The city centre, alone, accounted for 604,000 sq ft.

Prime rents held at £50 per sq ft, with Bristol remaining the Big Nine’s highest-rented market.

The largest city centre transaction in six years was Hargreaves Lansdown moving from its HQ after 40 years. The investment platform, which employs some 2,000 people Bristol, signed a long-term lease for more than 90,000 sq ft across three floors at Welcome Building, off Avon Street, near to Temple Meads station.

The business was previously based at One College Square South on Anchor Road in the city centre.

Another large deal was legal firm Burges Salmon regearing its lease and expanding by acquiring an additional 41,600 sq ft at One Glass Wharf.

Julian Watts, managing director for Bristol and South West at Avison Young, said: “Bristol continues to stand out as one of the strongest-performing cities within the Big Nine. The office market delivered an exceptionally positive year in 2025, marked by record headline rents in both the city centre and out-of-town markets.”

He added: “With supply tightening and space under construction being pre-let, the market is poised for continued upward pressure on rents.”

Nationally, the UK office market was boosted by a strong Q4, where take-up reached 2.1 million sq ft, with year-end take-up reaching 7.6 million sq ft, just four per cent below 2024 and in line with the five-year average.

Strong occupier demand for high-spec workspace continued to push rents higher across the Big Nine cities last year, with Bristol, Birmingham and Leeds all setting new rental records.

Investment volumes reached £227m in the fourth quarter, bringing the year-end total to £1.1bn.

Avison Young said that while investor sentiment had been impacted by economic uncertainty and elevated borrowing costs, contributing to slower decision-making, positive news around the economy at the start of 2026 was “expected to stimulate activity and support an increase in transaction volumes”.