COVID-19 impact: FPIs net sellers at Rs 4,444 cr in May so far

Overseas investors withdrew Rs 4,444 crore from Indian markets in May so far amid concerns over the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic and its possible impact on the Indian economy. As per depositories data, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) took out Rs 6,370 crore from equities but pumped in Rs 1,926 crore in the debt segment between May 1-21. This took the total net outflow to Rs 4,444 crore.

“The concern over the second wave of coronavirus pandemic and its possible impact on the Indian economy continue to keep foreign investors on the sidelines and restrain them from investing substantially into the Indian equity markets,” said Himanshu Srivastava, associate director – manager research, Morningstar India.

At the same time, signs of improvement in the coronavirus situation in the last two weeks have provided some comfort and has resulted in sharp decline in net outflow numbers, he added. In April, the total net outflow from the Indian capital markets stood at Rs 9,435 crore. Shrikant Chouhan, executive vice president, equity technical research at Kotak Securities Ltd noted that concerns of rising inflation and rising debt levels are keeping emerging markets suppressed.

“Amongst emerging markets South Korea and Taiwan saw highest month to date FPI outflows of USD 825 crore and USD 344 crore respectively. On the contrary, Indonesia saw month to date FPI inflows of USD 4.6 crore,” Chouhan said.

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FPI outflows is a temporary phenomenon as per Harsh Jain, co-founder and COO at Groww. The number of covid cases in the country is falling and vaccination rates are slowly climbing; and as the economy reopens, FPI investments will “dramatically climb,” he said.