FIIs Sell ₹5,610 Crore In 3 Sessions, DIIs Pour ₹23,160 Crore Into Indian Stocks Despite Market Fall

Mumbai: Foreign institutional investors remained cautious on Indian equities last week, emerging as net sellers in three of the five trading sessions, while domestic institutional investors continued to provide strong support to the market.

FIIs sold Indian equities worth Rs 5,610 crore during the week, marking their third consecutive week of net selling. In contrast, DIIs were net buyers in all five sessions, purchasing shares worth Rs 23,160 crore.

Domestic Funds Counter FII Selling

The divergence between foreign and domestic institutional flows remained significant. Pabitro Mukherjee, Deputy Vice President Research at Bajaj Broking, said FIIs stayed on the sell side for a third straight week, while DIIs extended their buying streak.

Foreign investors were also net sellers during the quarterly MSCI index rebalancing session on August 31.

Strong domestic liquidity helped cushion some of the pressure from persistent foreign selling and weakness in benchmark indices.

Crude Oil Weighs On Markets

Indian benchmark indices declined for the fourth consecutive week as escalating geopolitical tensions in West Asia pushed crude oil prices sharply higher and hurt investor sentiment.

Despite the pressure on headline indices, broader market sentiment was not uniformly weak. Stock specific buying continued, particularly in selected small cap shares.

The Nifty ended the week at 23,897, down 1.2 per cent, after buying at lower levels helped the index recover from its weekly lows.

The Nifty Midcap index declined 1.5 per cent amid profit booking, while the Nifty Smallcap index managed to gain 0.1 per cent during the week.

Selective Buying Continues

Friday's recovery was led by metals, insurance and selected financial stocks, indicating that investors remained willing to buy sectors showing stronger relative performance.

The divergence between benchmark and broader indices suggested that investors were favouring companies with better earnings visibility rather than adopting a broad risk off approach.

Going ahead, investors are expected to closely track FII flows, crude oil prices, movements in the rupee and domestic liquidity for cues on the direction of Indian equities.