Foreign Investors Pull Rs 52,100 Crore From Indian Stocks in October

Foreign portfolio investors have pulled 52,100 crore rupees from Indian equities in October so far, and the month still has two weeks to run. The selling has already passed September's full-month withdrawal of 35,861 crore, according to depository data reported by PTI.

The year is now in a different league from the last one. Cumulative foreign outflows from Indian equities in 2026 have reached 3.12 lakh crore rupees. Foreign investors withdrew 1.66 lakh crore in the whole of 2025.

The reasons sit outside India. Crude oil is expensive, US bond yields are higher, and the dollar is stronger. Sticky US inflation has also fed expectations of a Federal Reserve rate hike, which makes US assets more attractive. Dheeraj Gaur, chief investment strategy officer at Choice Wealth, told PTI that foreign funds kept selling for those reasons, and that the AI-led rally in North Asian markets is drawing money away from Indian stocks at the same time.

The week inside the number

Provisional exchange data reported by IANS shows how steady the pressure was last week. Foreign investors sold 1,708 crore on Monday, 1,305 crore on Tuesday, 1,857 crore on Wednesday and 5,285 crore on Thursday, a net sale of about 8,990 crore for the week. Friday brought a small reversal: 1,166 crore of buying on Oct. 16, which ended a 15-session selling streak that began on Sept. 24. Over that streak, provisional sales ran to roughly 84,000 crore.

The brief return to buying is likely tactical rather than a change of direction, Gaur said. The primary market, which gave strong foreign support in September, has been much quieter in October, so that cushion is thinner too.

The odd part: the market rose anyway

Indian equities are not behaving like a market under foreign-investor stress. The Nifty gained 2.8 percent last week to 23,146, and the Sensex rose 3.1 percent. Nifty IT jumped 11.7 percent on optimism around AI-linked revenues and technology earnings. Domestic institutions bought heavily and absorbed the foreign selling, as they have done through most of this outflow. The IMF's upward revision of India's GDP growth forecasts for the 2027 and 2028 fiscal years also helped local sentiment.

That split is the story for the weeks ahead. Foreign selling at this pace cannot run forever without an effect, but so far the effect has been absorbed by domestic money. Markets reopen after the Dussehra holiday, with oil prices and foreign flows still the two numbers traders will watch first.

For context, the same investors were buyers not long ago. Foreign portfolio investors put 20,200 crore into Indian equities in July and 29,631 crore in August, before turning sellers in September.