Foreign Investors Pull Out Rs 7,013 Crore From Indian Markets So Far In March

Foreign portfolio investors were net sellers to the tune of Rs 7,013 crore so far this month from Indian markets on profit-booking as jitters in global bond markets spooked investors.

According to data from depositories, such investors pulled out Rs 531 crore from equities and Rs 6,482 crore from the debt segment between March 1-13.

Net outflows stood at Rs 7,013 crore.

In contrast, they had pumped in Rs 23,663 crore in Indian markets in February and Rs 14,649 crore in January, on net basis.

“The flows into the equity markets have moderated significantly in the recent times, which could be largely attributed to profit booking as markets continue to be at elevated levels,” said Himanshu Srivastava, associate director- manager research, Morningstar India.

The dollar index climbing above 92 and firmness in U.S. 10-year bond yield impacted sentiments which may be seen as profit-booking since FPIs are sitting on huge profits, VK Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said. “FPIs have been big buyers in IT and financials where earnings visibility is high.”

Besides, for debt segment, Srivastava said FPIs have been on a selling spree in the segment for a long time now mainly on concerns around Covid-19, calibrated support by RBI and low interest rates.

FPI flows across emerging markets remains mixed, said Rusmik Oza, executive vice president, head of fundamental research at Kotak Securities.

Few emerging markets like South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia have seen marginal inflows this month, he said, adding in the near term, FPI flows could be a function of how U.S. bond yields and dollar index behaves.

“FPI ownership of blue-chip stocks, and especially Nifty 50 stocks is at a five-year high which is indicative of how they expect the economy to do in the near future,” noted Harsh Jain, co-founder and chief operating officer at Groww.