Foreign investors selloff at slow pace; pull out Rs 1,586 cr from Indian equities in October

After withdrawing over Rs 7,600 crore last month, foreign investors have slowed down the pace of equity selling in India in October so far, as they pulled out Rs 1,586 crore from capital markets.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) were net buyers of Rs 51,200 crore in August. The month of November is expected to have net inflow of more or less similar to this, K Dileep, Head of PMS at Geojit Financial Services, said.

According to the data from the depositories, FPIs withdrew Rs 1,586 crore from equities in October (till 28). The one trading session is left for the month.

However, in the last few days, FPIs slowed down on selling substantially. In fact, they invested more than Rs 6,000 crore in the last four trading sessions.

Shrikant Chouhan, Head-Equity Research (Retail) at Kotak Securities, attributed October's outflow to higher cost of capital, ongoing geo-political risk among others.

"The quantum of FPI outflow/inflow in October was less compared to previous month, but in line with global market movements especially the sentiments in US market had influenced as usual," Geojit Financial Services' Dileep, said.

In July, FPIs made a net investment or nearly Rs 5,000 crore. Before that, foreign investors were net sellers in Indian equities for nine months in a row which started in October last year.

So far this year, the total outflow by FPIs in equities has reached Rs 1.70 lakh crore.

The flows from FPIs have been inconsistent over the last few months as they kept on changing their stance frequently tracking the fast-changing investment scenario.

The broader sentiment has been unconducive although there have been some intermittent breathers.

"Expectation of further and aggressive rate hikes by the US Fed, depreciating rupee, fears of a recession and continuation of conflict between Russia and Ukraine would continue to have a negative impact on foreign flows into Indian equities. This scenario has created an environment of uncertainty leading investors to turn risk averse," Himanshu Srivastava, Associate Director - Manager Research, Morningstar India, said.

In addition to equities, foreign investors have pulled out Rs 1,548 crore from the debt market during the period under review.

Apart from India, FPI flows were negative for the Philippines and Taiwan so far this month.