FPIs sell Rs 7,200 crore worth shares in a week; is this a trend reversal indication?
Foreign portfolio investors turned net sellers in the secondary market last week, selling stocks worth over Rs 7,200 crore on Dalal Street.
Selling by the big bulls restrained the upside in benchmark indices, as the BSE Sensex clocked just 0.3% gains.
In the week ended March 22, FPIs net sold Indian stocks worth Rs 7,272.13 crore, according to data on StockEdge.
However, FPIs turned net buyers in March after being net sellers in both January and February.
FPIs have poured a whopping Rs 43,900 crore into 13 sectors in the first fortnight of March, according to data released by NSDL.
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While inflows in equities have been volatile, FPIs have been consistently investing in the debt market.
According to data by StockEdge, FPIs net invested over Rs 23,000 crore in January in the debt market, Rs 20,400 crore in February, and over Rs 12,000 crore so far in March.
“The fundamental reason for this sustained FPI flows into debt is the inclusion of Indian bonds in the JP Morgan EM Bond Fund and Bloomberg Bond Index, which is expected to bring investments of around $25 billion,” said V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
While FPI inflows into debt are likely to continue, going forward, a sharp surge in debt flows is unlikely since the US bond yields have also risen in recent days, Vijayakumar said.
“If the differential between developed market bond yields, particularly US bonds, and Indian bond
