The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold a whopping Rs 113,858 crore worth equity in the Indian stock market in the month of October, contributing hugely to the about 8 per cent decline in benchmark indices from the peak.
Despite the massive FII selling in financials, this sector is resilient since the valuations are fair and every selling is being absorbed by domestic institutional investors (DIIs) and individual investors, particularly high-net-worth individuals (HNIs).
According to market watchers, the FII selling through the exchanges in October is the single-highest absolute selling ever in a month by them. However, FIIs were buyers in the primary market with an investment of Rs 19,842 crores in October. Market experts said that the rally in Chinese stocks appears to have tapered off as reflected in the declining trend in Shanghai and Hang Seng indices in recent days. Global markets will respond to the US presidential elections for a few days, after which fundamentals like US GDP growth, inflation and rate cut by the Fed will influence market moves, said experts.
Meanwhile, in a new monthly record, DIIs infused more than Rs 1 lakh crore in Indian equities in October, keeping the stock market healthy compared to its global peers. So far, the DII investments have been more than Rs 4.41 lakh crore, with two more months to go, driven by growing retail participation through mutual funds. Earlier, the highest recorded monthly DII inflows were registered in March this year, at about Rs 56,356 crore.
According to market experts, DII inflows are a result of SIP contributions alongside insurance and retirement fund flows. DIIs have been a strong buyer absorbing the selling and mitigating the fall. Samvat 2080 saw Indian equities soaring to new highs with Nifty-50 surpassing the milestone of 26,000 to make a new high of 26,277 in September. Despite recent correction from the top, Nifty has given a return of 26 per cent in Samvat 2080.
