FPIs Record Largest Sell-Off In October But This Segment Has Bucked The Trend

Amid the record outflows, domestic institutions have been the largest buyers, as they recorded inflows of Rs 75,000 crore during the same period when FPIs sold over Rs 77,000 crore amid their 14-day selling streak.

Notably, mutual funds, which contribute to a major part of DII flows, had been sitting on a cash pile of Rs 1.49 lakh crore across all actively managed equity schemes as on September 30.

Even as FPIs made record outflows during the month and most sectors saw selling, a few exceptions remained.

According to fortnightly sector-wise FPI investment data provided by the National Securities Depository Ltd., the financial services sector saw the largest outflows, till October 15 at Rs 23,274 crore.

Over the same period, Nifty Financial Services index declined by 2.5%.

Oil, gas & consumable fuels sector followed with the second largest outflows at Rs 12,371 crore, with the Nifty Oil & Gas index declining by 6% over the period.

Amid sectors that saw inflows, companies in the chemicals sector saw FPIs becoming net buyers of Rs 522 crore worth of equities, followed by those in the metals and mining space by Rs 222 crore.

The segment which saw the largest inflows, however, was the "others" category.

NSDL follows the sectoral classification provided by the BSE for around 4,800 companies in 22 sectors. As per NSDL's definition, any FPI investment outside of those 4,800 companies is classified under 'Others'.

The industry classification report provided by BSE that NSDL follows had come into effect on April 30, 2022. Since then, new listings have made their way onto both NSE and the BSE, with some being listed on one of the two exchanges.

As on October 17, a total of 5,511 companies were listed on the BSE, according to the exchange. This equates to over 700 companies that would fall under NSDL's definition of those under the 'Others' category.

Notably, this category saw inflows of Rs 4,271 crore — more than seven times that of category which saw the second highest inflows, indicating that FPIs have preferred investing in relatively newly listed companies.

This can also be seen in the flows which came in the primary markets during the period when outflows were seen in the secondary markets.

Till October 15, inflows made by FPIs into the primary market stood at a little over Rs 4,000 crore.