Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) continue to sell off unabated. FPIs continued their selling spree in the month of November as well, selling domestic equities worth Rs 26,533 crore so far this month.

The Indian stock market has been in a decline for the last several days, with the selling by foreign investment institutions being a major reason. FPIs have sold a total of Rs 19,940 crore in 2024, while it was Rs 1,00,245 crore at the end of September.

In October, FPIs sold shares worth Rs 94,017 crore following the purchases made in September, where FPIs bought domestic equities worth Rs 57,724 crore. While in August they bought shares worth Rs 7,322 crore, which was a month-on-month decline from July, when the total purchase figure was Rs 32,359 crore.

In June, they were net buyers of Rs 26,565 crore, while in April and May, they remained net sellers by selling shares worth Rs 8,671 crore and Rs 25,586 crore respectively.

They were net buyers of Rs 1,539 crore and Rs 35,098 crore in February and March, respectively, after a negative start to the year in January when they sold shares worth Rs 25,744 crore.

On Friday, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers of Rs 1,278.37 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were net buyers of Rs 1,722.15 crore.

Commenting on the current FPI trends, VK Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services, listed three main reasons behind the continued sell-off by FIIs. "One is 'sell India, buy China'.

The second reason is concerns over FY25 corporate earnings and the third is 'Trump business'," he said. Of these three, 'sell India, buy China' is over. The Trump business also appears to be in its final stages as valuations in the US have reached high levels.

He said FII selling in India is likely to reduce soon as valuations of large-cap stocks are coming down from earlier highs. "FIIs are buying IT stocks and this is bringing flexibility to IT stocks. Banking stocks have been resilient despite FII selling, mainly due to DII buying, keeping their levels intact," Vijaykumar said.