New Delhi, March 5 -- With the West Asia war once again souring investor sentiment, the key question is whether India will attract capital rotating out of the US-or whether the conflict will derail the return of foreign investors just as it was getting underway.

The timing is crucial: in February, foreign institutional investors, or FIIs, had turned net buyers, picking up Indian equities worth Rs17,147.25 crore, signalling a tentative comeback.

But that momentum was immediately reversed in reaction to the weekend's war developments: on Monday, the second day of March, FIIs offloaded Indian equities worth Rs.3,296 crore. Tuesday was a market holiday.

On Wednesday, provisional BSE data showed that FIIs were net sellers of Indian equities...