These stocks, where the FII exposure has been mostly rising, include housing finance giant HDFC, automaker M&M, private sector lender IndusInd Bank and drugmaker Lupin, as per the report by investment banking major Morgan Stanley.

"Of the top 100 stocks in India by market cap, the top 20 purchases by FIIs over the past five years delivered an average return 21 times more than the 20 least-purchased (or most sold) names by FIIs," said the report.

According to data collated by Morgan Stanley, the highest return among the top 20 stocks bought by FIIs came from IndusInd Bank (784 percent), followed by GlaxoSmithkline Consumer (774 percent), Lupin (523 percent), M&M Financial (429 percent), Yes Bank (percent) and Motherson Sumi (317 percent) saw substantial returns on a 5-year trailing basis.

Counters including Marico, Tata Motors, Ultratech Cement, Colgate-Palmolive, REC, Zee Entertainment and HDFC saw gains in 107-280 percent range.

On the other hand, the 20 most-sold stocks by FIIs, including JP Associates, BHEL, Tata Steel, RCom, JSW Steel, Bharti Airtel, Ranbaxy and ABB, have seen about 16-49 percent value decline.

"Often, when we engage in a debate on India's macro, we are reminded of the reason why foreign investors first came to India: it was largely to own companies that were well managed and whose stocks were reasonably valued ? the macro environment was not the reason to buy Indian stocks.

"The past five years has brought this reason back to the forefront. The macro has been challenging, to say the least, yet several stocks have delivered notable returns," the report said.

PTI