FPIs continue selloff with Rs 22k crore withdrawal in November

NEW DELHI: Foreign investors have pulled out Rs 22,420 crore from the Indian equity market so far this month, owing to high domestic stock valuations, increasing allocations to China, and the rising US dollar as well as Treasury yields.

With this sell-off, Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) have recorded a total outflow of Rs 15,827 crore in 2024 so far.

As liquidity tightens, FPI inflows are expected to remain subdued in the short term. A positive shift in FPI activity is unlikely before early January, keeping overall market sentiment weak, Akhil Puri, partner, financial advisory, Forvis Mazars in India, said.

According to data, FPIs recorded a net outflow of Rs 22,420 crore so far this month. This came following a net withdrawal of Rs 94,017 crore in Oct, which was the worst monthly outflow. Before this, FPIs withdrew Rs 61,973 crore from equities in March 2020. In Sept 2024, foreign investors made a nine-month high investment of Rs 57,724 crore.

The relentless FPI selling since Oct has been triggered by the cumulative impact of three factors: one, the high valuations in India; two, concerns regarding the earnings downgrade; and three, the Trump trade, V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist, Geojit Financial Services, said.

“While there is a larger belief that part of selling in Nov and large part of year-round selling has been due to ‘Buy China, Sell India trade for FPIs’, our sense is that it’s been a ‘Buy US, Sell India + other EMs’ trade due to the Presidential election event in the US,” Piyush Metha, smallcase Manager and CIO at Caprize Investments, said.