Norway-based Norges Bank, which is the world’s largest pension fund with $1.9 trillion in assets under management, has emerged as the second-largest foreign portfolio investor (FPI) in India, tripling the value of its holdings to Rs 1.42 lakh crore since 2022.
Along with the Government of Singapore, which retains the top spot with assets worth Rs 2.03 lakh crore, the two biggest offshore investors in Indian equities are both sovereign funds, Prime Database showed.
Industry data shows that the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund has sharply increased its allocation to India at a time when many large FPIs have turned more cautious in their approach. Between June 2024 and June 2025, the combined India holdings of the top 15 FPIs (as on June 30, 2025) fell by Rs 57,000 crore, while Norges’ Indian investments rose by approximately Rs 15,000 crore in value during the same period.
Between 2022 and 2024, the India weightage in Norges’ portfolio surged from 1.6 percent of global exposure in 2022 to 2.5 percent in 2024, according to its annual report. This rise in India’s weightage has come at the cost of China, whose share declined from 3.8 percent to 3.3 percent during the period. The fund’s total allocation for emerging markets (EMs) was 10.6 percent, implying that India attracted nearly one-fourth of overall EM flows from Norges.
Since 2022, Norges Bank has surpassed US-based Capital Group to reach the second position among FPIs investing in India. In 2022, its holdings in India were valued at Rs 49,465 crore - about 40 percent of the size of the Singapore government’s Rs 1.17 lakh crore at the time. By June 2025, Norges’ India share book was worth Rs 1.42 lakh crore, around 70 percent of the size of Singapore’s Rs 2.03 lakh crore, Prime Database data showed.
"This also needs to be looked at in the context of the overall FPI share in the Indian market reducing from 17.39 to 17.04 percent and the benchmark indices remaining largely flattish during this period,” said Pranav Haldea, managing director, Prime Database.
The pension fund has stakes worth over $1 billion in at least five Indian companies. HDFC Bank is its largest India bet, with a 1.29 percent stake valued at $2.04 billion. It also owns $1.17 billion worth of shares, or 1.05 percent of overall equity, in telecom player Bharti Airtel, and has stakes worth over $1 billion in Infosys. Other large positions include Axis Bank, where Norges owns 1.6 percent or shares worth $620 million, according to the fund’s annual report.
The fund is currently invested in more than 500 listed Indian companies, spread across banking, consumer goods and information technology, but does not invest in companies that derive a major portion of their revenue from fossil fuels.
Among other large FPIs, Vanguard, the US-based fund house considered a pioneer in global passive investing, is the fourth-largest foreign investor in India with assets worth Rs 62,752 crore. The fund house has also seen the value of its India portfolio more than double since 2022. Goldman Sachs is the fifth-largest FPI with assets worth Rs 50,704 crore. GQG Partners, which came into the limelight after making large investments in the Adani Group, is the sixth largest. GQG’s assets surged from Rs 3,716 crore in 2022 to Rs 43,455 crore by 2024, but its portfolio value fell by 6.6 percent to Rs 40,568 crore in the last one year ending June 2025.
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