The Cost Of FPI Sell-offs

Around 94,292 crore Was Withdrawn From Indian Markets This Year.

- Suyash Desai

Markets have been volatile throughout the calendar year. The volatility is mainly due to structural compulsions like rise in international crude prices and tightening of trade opportunities due to the US-China trade wars. This is further compounded by domestic factors like rising fiscal and current account deficit (CAD), soaring of bond yields, surfacing of certain scams and approaching elections. Amidst this volatility, the Indian equity markets have almost wiped off its calendar year’s gains. The BSE Sensex that started the calendar year on 33812.75 points, stood at 34, 134.38 points on October 22 at the end of the trading day. On the other hand, the Nifty which started out at 10,435.55 points, was at 10,245.25 points on October 22. Refer to Fig. 2 for the calendar year gains or losses.

One important thing to notice in such volatile times is the outward flow of Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs). As per National Security Depository Limited (NSDL), around `94,292 crore was withdrawn by the FPIs from the Indian markets till October 22, 2018. The withdrawal from equity markets stood at `33,688 crore and the debt market witnessed a heavy pull out of `60,493 crore. The hybrid instruments, meanwhile, had a modest withdrawal of `110 crore. (Refer to table 1 for the monthly break up of data).

Why Are The Foreign Investors Pulling Out?