Explore Now Mumbai: Discretion is the better part of valour, Shakespeare said about five centuries ago. For overseas investors, it’s still the best strategy to make money in covid-crippled India. As an unprecedented viral wave shuts the country down for the second consecutive summer, discretionary expenditure has visibly ebbed — and so has FPI enthusiasm for business-as-usual stocks that rely on normal mobility. Instead, this block that owns more than a fifth of India’s market value is now buying up the traditional ‘defensives’ — products one can’t live without. So, consumer staples and IT are featuring more prominently on FII buy lists while BFSI and autos get the short shrift. Overseas investors bought $376 million (Rs 2,800 crore) and $201 million (Rs 1,517 crore) worth of consumer staples and IT stocks, respectively, in April.