FPI selling tops $10 bn in Oct amid China shift

If trend holds, this will be first monthly outflows of over $10 bn

- SUNDAR SETHURAMAN

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have net sold domestic shares worth over $10 billion so far this month amid a shift to China, which not only offers attractive valuations compared to India but has also announced several measures to support the economy and the stock market in recent weeks.

If the trend doesn't reverse, this will be the first time that overseas funds will yank out more than $10 billion from Indian equity markets in a month.

According to the NSDL data, FPIs had offloaded Indian shares worth $9.9 billion, or ₹82,845 crore, until Friday. On Monday, they sold another ₹2,262 crore ($270 million) worth of shares, the provisional data provided by the exchanges suggested, taking the selling tally this month to $10.17 billion. Before this, the highest FPI outflows took place during the peak of Covid-19 sell-off in March 2020, at $7.9 billion. The sudden sell-off and the uncertainty around the economic impact of the pandemic had triggered a 23 per cent collapse in the Sensex and the Nifty 50 index back then.