New Delhi, October 19 — Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have withdrawn Rs 52,100 crore from Indian equities in October so far, deepening a selling streak driven by elevated crude oil prices, higher United States bond yields and a stronger dollar, according to depository data. The FPI outflow in the first half of the month has already surpassed September’s net withdrawal of Rs 35,861 crore.
Data from the Central Depository Services Ltd (CDSL) showed that the latest FPI outflow reverses the brief buying seen in July and August, when overseas investors put Rs 20,200 crore and Rs 29,631 crore, respectively, into Indian equities. With the October selling, the cumulative FPI outflow from Indian equities in calendar 2026 has reached Rs 3.12 lakh crore — far above the Rs 1.66 lakh crore withdrawn during the whole of 2025.
FPI Outflow Crosses Rs 3.12 Lakh Crore in 2026
Market watchers say the FPI outflow reflects a familiar mix of global headwinds. Dheeraj Gaur, chief investment strategy officer at Choice Wealth, said FPIs continued to sell Indian equities amid elevated US bond yields, a stronger dollar and rising crude oil prices. Sticky US inflation has also fuelled expectations of a Federal Reserve rate hike, making US assets more attractive to foreign investors, he said.
Expensive crude is adding to economic pressures in India, while the artificial intelligence-led rally in North Asian markets is drawing foreign funds away from domestic equities, Gaur added. The US 10-year bond yield, which had climbed above 5.3 per cent, eased to 5.08 per cent — a shift analysts link to a brief change in that selling trend.
The weekly data underlines how intense the FPI outflow has been. On provisional exchange data, FPIs sold Rs 1,708 crore on Monday, Rs 1,305 crore on Tuesday, Rs 1,857 crore on Wednesday and a hefty Rs 5,285 crore on Thursday, before Friday’s Rs 1,166 crore of buying snapped the streak. Net, overseas investors sold about Rs 8,990 crore during the week — even as the Nifty and Sensex climbed nearly 3 per cent, powered by domestic buying.
Foreign investors turned marginal buyers on October 16, snapping a 15-session selling streak that began on September 24, during which they sold roughly Rs 84,000 crore on provisional numbers. On the last trading day of the week, FPIs bought a modest Rs 1,166 crore. V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Investments Ltd, said the decline in US bond yields and the rupee’s strengthening against the dollar were significant factors behind the temporary reversal — but cautioned it was likely tactical rather than a structural shift in foreign-investor behaviour.
FPI Outflow Fails to Dent Benchmarks as DIIs Step In
In a striking disconnect, the sustained FPI outflow has not weighed on headline indices. The Nifty gained 2.8 per cent over the week to 23,146, while the Sensex rose 3.1 per cent. Nifty IT was the standout, jumping 11.7 per cent on optimism around AI-related revenues and technology earnings. Domestic institutional investors once again played shock absorber, buying heavily even as foreign investors reduced exposure.
The primary-market cushion has also thinned as the FPI outflow persisted. September had provided a much-needed offset, with strong foreign participation in primary issues; October so far has been much quieter, analysts noted. With two weeks of the month still to go, October’s settled equity outflow has already moved well above September’s Rs 35,861 crore, and calendar-2026 FPI equity outflows are now well over the Rs 3 lakh crore mark.
On the macro front, the IMF’s upward revision of India’s GDP growth forecasts for FY27 and FY28 has reinforced confidence in the resilience of the domestic economy. Still, elevated crude levels, rising retail and wholesale inflation, mixed global cues and persistent foreign fund selling remain key concerns, according to market watchers.
For now, strategists expect the FPI outflow to remain hostage to global cues — the trajectory of US yields, the dollar and crude — even as strong domestic liquidity continues to cushion Indian equities from the full force of foreign selling.