Mumbai, Nov 22 (IANS): The growing anticipation of any dovish sign from the central bank in its upcoming monetary policy review kept the foreign investors interest focused on Indian equities.

Supportive global cues, expectations of improvement in growth rates and expectations of an early interest rate cut have kept foreign investor's clued to the Indian markets.

For the week ended Nov 21, the FPIs bought stocks worth Rs.1,675.75 crore or $271.65 million, according to data with the National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL).

The FPIs had sold only Rs.412.23 crore or $66.37 million worth of equity in the week under review.

For the previous week ended (Nov 14), the FPIs had bought stocks worth Rs.5,674.21 crore or $922.4 million.

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) along with sub-accounts and qualified foreign investors have been clubbed together by market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to create a new investor category called FPIs.

However, on a week-on-week basis, the foreign inflows decreased 70.46 percent at Rs.1,675.75 crore reported for the week ended Nov 21 from Rs.5,674.21 crore in the previous week ended Nov 14.

On Nov 21, Friday, the FPIs divested shares worth Rs.412.23 crore or $66.37 million worth.

For the coming week, analysts said that the FPIs will watch every sign from the central bank anxiously which will dictate their near-to-medium term trading trends.

"We expect markets to remain focused on the upcoming RBI (Reserve Bank of India) meeting on Dec 2. Any dovish signal from the RBI will buoy sentiments within the economy and lead to further improvement at the ground level," said Dipen Shah, head-private client group research, Kotak Securities.