Indian equities secured the largest chunk of foreign money last year in Asia as foreign inflows into Asian equities turned positive due to diminished fears about a Sino-US trade war and a reduction in US interest rates. Analysts further expect a recovery in regional economies to assist in keeping the inflows coming in 2020.

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Indian equities grabbed $14.7 billion of foreign money last year, the highest since 2014.

According to DBS Bank, the Indian government's removal of tax surcharges on foreign portfolio investors and the outperformance of domestic stock markets helped fuel inflows last year.

The strong inflows led the Indian benchmark indices to hit multiple record highs during the year. The S&P BSE Sensex rose 15 percent and the Nifty 50 surged 12 percent in 2019. That was their second-best performance in the past five calendar years.

Taiwan and Indonesia, meanwhile, drew foreign funds totalling about $6 billion and $3.5 billion respectively in 2019.

Foreign buying of regional stocks totalled $2.92 billion in December.

During the month, China and United States agreed on a preliminary trade deal that is expected to be signed on January 15.

Goldman Sachs said foreign investors "net bought only half of the US$50bn peak-to-trough outflows of 2018 and cumulative FII flows are tracking more than US$40bn below the long-term trend, suggesting room to recover further."

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.4 percent so far this year, after securing 16.3 percent gains in 2019.

(With inputs from Reuters)

First Published:Jan 7, 2020 4:50 PM IST