Foreign portfolio investors turn net sellers in November but pace slows

New Delhi [India], December 1 : Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have turned net sellers in Indian stock markets for the second straight month in November.
They were net buyers in the past four months on a trot through September.
Data made available by National Securities Depository Limited showed that FPIs had sold stocks worth Rs 21,612 crore in November. In October, they sold Rs 94,017 crore.
Important to mention is that the total stocks they sold in India in October were the highest ever in a month.
V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services, said, "It appears that they are likely to turn out consistent buyers only when the market corrects further and valuations become attractive."
In June, July, August, and September, they bought stocks worth Rs 26,565 crore, Rs 32,365 crore, Rs 7,320 crore, and Rs 57,724 crore, respectively.
FPIs had fuelled the bull run in the stock market, barring the latest slump. As per definition, Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI) involves an investor buying foreign financial assets.
The benchmark Sensex remains nearly 6,000 points below its all-time high of 85,978 points.
The pace of FPI sell-offs in the past few sessions has however slowed down. Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran in the post-GDP data release presser said FPI has turned net buyers again since November 21.
"FPI became net sellers in Oct and Nov amid ongoing geopolitical tensions and support measures by China," Nageswaran said in his presentation on Friday evening.
Interestingly, at a time when overseas investors were net sellers in Indian equities, domestic institutional investors stayed net buyers, largely making up for the outflows by foreign investors. They accumulated stocks worth thousands of crores more than, data showed. This has likely cushioned the stock indices from a sharp fall.