Foreign portfolio investors stayed net sellers of Indian equities for the 15th consecutive session on Thursday. The FPIs sold shares worth Rs 7,558 crore.
However, domestic institutional investors stayed net buyers for the 17th session as they bought shares worth Rs 3,864 crore. So far this week, the FPIs have offloaded share worth Rs 24,380 crore, while DIIs bought Rs 24,935 crore worth of shares.
Last week, the FPIs offloaded shares worth Rs 35,053 crore, while the DIIs bought shares worth Rs 37,740 crore. The spike in FPI selling came as the tensions in the Middle East rose amid the Iran war.
So far in March, they sold equity worth Rs 77,214 crore, according to data on NSDL. This is the highest selling in a month since January 2025.
In 2026 so far, the FPIs have net sold equities worth up to Rs 90,561 crore. The FPIs have sold shares worth Rs 35,962 crore in January. They have bought stakes worth Rs 22,615 crore in February, aided by improving risk sentiment in the geoeconomic space.
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Indian equity benchmarks halted a three-day losing streak on weak global cues, surging oil prices and selloff in HDFC Bank. The NSE Nifty 50 fell 2.9% to below 23,100 and the BSE Sensex fell 3.3% to near 74,200. Intraday, the 30-stock index fell as much as 3.6% or 2,753 points to 73,950 and the 50-share index fell as much as 3.6% to 22,930.
The declines in the benchmark indices were led by HDFC Bank, which slided in trade after its part-time chair Atanu Chakraborty resigned, citing concerns over practices that were not aligned with his personal values and ethics.
Meanwhile, oil prices rose further as strikes on energy infrastructure in the Middle East raised supply concerns. Brent crude May futures climbed 5% to above $116.
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