India's weak economic data turns FPIs from net buyers to net sellers in Dec

Reversing their buying trend, foreign portfolio investors (FPI) turned net sellers in December with a net outflow of Rs 244 crore from the capital markets amid subdued economic data.

According to the depositories data, foreign investors pulled out a net sum of Rs 1,668.8 crore from equities. FPIs, however, invested Rs 1,424.6 crore on a net basis in the debt segment, resulting in a total net outflow of Rs 244.2 crore in December so far.

FPIs had been net buyers for two months to November. They invested Rs 16,037.6 crore in October and Rs 22,871.8 crore in November on a net basis.

"FPIs adopted a cautious approach while investing in Indian equities, on the back of subdued economic indicators. It has not been a good year for the Indian economy so far and the recently released GDP number which continued the southward march for the seventh quarter in a row falling to 4.5 per cent reaffirmed the slowdown in the Indian economy," said Himanshu Srivastava, senior analyst manager research, Morningstar Investment Adviser India.

FPIs would continue to be watchful of the domestic environment and tread cautiously, he added.

Echoing the views, Harsh Jain, co-founder and COO Groww said, "Trump threatening to continue the US-China trade war well past 2020 is definitely making global investors cautious. The repo rate was not reduced, unlike FPIs' expectations. Plus the latest GDP numbers are also responsible for bearish behaviour of FPIs.