Foreign portfolio investors put a record Rs 13,514 crore into Indian IT stocks in October 2026, the highest monthly inflow the sector has ever recorded. The figure, about $1.42 billion, passed the previous monthly record of Rs 11,763 crore set in July 2024, according to data from the National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL). Indian IT stocks drew the money even as foreign investors remained net sellers of Indian equities overall.
Most of the buying came late in the month. Foreign investors bought IT shares worth about Rs 10,915 crore between 16 and 31 October, after buying only Rs 2,599 crore in the first half of the month. Telecom drew Rs 11,065 crore in the same fortnight, and Indian IT stocks and telecom together took Rs 21,980 crore of foreign purchases in late October.
Why Indian IT stocks attracted foreign money
The buying is striking because Indian IT was a laggard for much of 2026. Global funds spent the year chasing AI-linked returns elsewhere in Asia, and the sector saw Rs 27,784 crore of selling between January and September. October turned that around, and the Nifty IT index recorded one of its best monthly performances in years.
Investors appear to view Indian IT companies as beneficiaries of digital spending rather than as speculative AI infrastructure plays. As the global AI trade cracked, money moved towards companies that sell technology services to businesses around the world, and Indian IT stocks fit that description. The sector offers exposure to global enterprise technology spending without the hardware valuations that have come under pressure.
The buying also reflects a change in how global funds view Indian IT. The companies earn much of their revenue from clients in the United States and Europe, and their order books have held up even as spending on AI hardware has come under question. Indian IT stocks now look like a way to own technology spending without owning the chip makers and data centre builders at the centre of the sell-off.
October was still a month of net selling overall
The record inflow into Indian IT stocks sits inside a month of heavy overall selling. Foreign investors withdrew Rs 47,955 crore from Indian equities between 1 and 15 October, then bought Rs 13,112 crore in the second half, leaving October with net equity outflows of Rs 34,843 crore. The IT and telecom buying was offset by selling in financial services, autos, FMCG and energy.
Motilal Oswal’s sectoral data put October buying in technology at about $1.4 billion, the largest among sectors, while telecom received about $700 million. Foreign investors were net sellers of $2.2 billion for October overall, and their selling in the first half of the month reached $5 billion before inflows of $2.8 billion in the second half.
The sector’s weight in foreign portfolios had fallen through the year. Between January and September, foreign investors sold Rs 27,784 crore of Indian IT stocks, and the sector underperformed the wider market for much of 2026. October’s buying does not erase that selling, but it shows the direction of travel has changed. The next test is whether the buying continues into November, when fresh flow data will show if the turn was a one-month event or the start of a longer return.
What the Indian IT stocks data does not show
The October data covers sector-wide purchases and does not confirm buying in any single IT company. The listed names in the sector include Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, HCL Technologies, Wipro and Tech Mahindra, but the flow figures do not break down which of them drew the money. The buying was spread across the sector rather than tied to one result or announcement.
The next earnings reports will give investors something more tangible to work with. The flow data does not establish that foreign investors expect an immediate improvement in IT earnings, and the sector’s outlook still depends on spending by clients in the United States and Europe. For now, the record inflow shows foreign funds returning to a sector they had spent most of the year leaving.