Overseas investors withdrew Rs 34,843 crore from Indian equities in October, extending a sharp sell-off for a second month, despite a late-week buying rebound that helped the Nifty regain 23,000.
Foreign portfolio investors pulled Rs 34,843 crore from Indian equities in October, marking a second straight month of heavy selling as worries over crude oil prices, global interest rates and the earnings outlook weighed on sentiment, according to a PTI report carried by News18. The month’s tally followed September’s Rs 35,861 crore outflow, even though foreign investors returned as net buyers in the final week of October, adding about Rs 6,300 crore after having sold nearly Rs 2,700 crore in the previous week.
Data from the Central Depository Services Limited showed that the October pull-back added to a year of volatile foreign flows. FPIs had put in Rs 20,200 crore in July and Rs 29,631 crore in August, but the latest withdrawals pushed cumulative foreign outflows from Indian equities in 2026 to Rs 2.95 lakh crore. CDSL’s published foreign-investor data is the standard reference for tracking such activity and breaks flows down by purchases, sales and net investment across market segments.
Market strategists said the late-month buying may point to a modest improvement in risk appetite, but not yet to a lasting turn. Anand K Rathi of MIRA Money told News18 that higher crude prices threaten inflation and corporate margins in India, while relatively attractive US yields continue to pull global capital towards dollar assets. He added that any durable recovery in foreign flows would depend on clearer signals on the global macro outlook, oil prices and earnings, with domestic institutional investors helping to cushion the impact of overseas selling.
The late-October rebound in foreign buying also helped the Nifty reclaim the 23,000 level. VK Vijayakumar of Geojit Investments said the US Federal Reserve’s decision to hold rates, reasonable valuations in large-cap Indian stocks and signs of steady domestic growth may have helped lift sentiment. He also pointed to a weakening in the global artificial intelligence trade as another possible influence on portfolio allocation. The market’s strength was led in part by pharmaceutical and healthcare shares, while foreign investors continued to trim some large-cap financial names, according to the report.
Pabitro Mukherjee of Bajaj Broking said the reversal in flows was encouraging, but warned that elevated crude prices and external event risk could keep investors cautious. Market participants are now watching the US mid-term elections, Brent crude, tensions involving the US, Iran, Russia and Ukraine, and the latest round of quarterly earnings for signs on whether the improvement in foreign inflows can extend into November.
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