Mumbai, May 8 (IANS) Foreign institutional investors (FIIS) sold stocks worth $620 million during the week ended Friday in sync with the bearish sentiments in the Indian equities markets post the rate hike effected by the central bank Tuesday.

According to statistics available with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), FIIs were net sellers all throughout the week barring Tuesday, when they were net buyers, but only by a modest $2.6 million.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had May 3 hiked the repo and reverse repo rate by 50 basis points in a bid to tame inflation and said growth could moderate to about 8 percent for the current fiscal.

"The sell-off was clearly triggered by higher than expected rate hike of 50 basis points by the RBI. Global markets were also weak and posted losses in the range of 2-2.5 percent for the week," Sanjeev Zarbade, vice president, private client group research, Kotak Securities.

Following are the net sales recorded: Monday ($43.9 million), Wednesday ($282.32 million), Thursday ($156.98 million) and Friday ($ 139.74 million).

FIIs began the fiscal year with a buying spree, lapping up stocks worth over $1.6 billion in April. In March too, such funds had bought stocks worth a handsome $1.5 billion.

However, in February, FIIs were net sellers to the tune of over $1 billion and sold a similar quantum in January as well.

As a result, in a little over four months of 2011, the net transactions by such institutions has been in the negative, with FIIs being net sellers to the tune of $519 million.