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Foreign investors have cut holdings of Indian stocks at a rapid pace over the past week, with disappointing earnings from some bellwether companies souring sentiment just as concerns about the Israel-Hamas war and higher-for-longer US rates hurt demand for riskier assets.
Overseas funds sold $768.4 million of local shares last Thursday alone, the biggest single-day outflow since June 2022 on a net basis, according to the latest data compiled by Bloomberg. Overall, they have withdrawn $1.2 billion in the week through Oct. 26, with Friday’s data yet to be released. That’s already the largest withdrawal in any week since early February.
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India’s top software services exporters and some large consumer-focused firms like ITC Ltd. and Hindustan Unilever Ltd. are among those that have seen their shares slide after reporting results, adding to the risks for the market.
Still, India’s benchmark NSE Nifty 50 Index has slipped 3.3% so far this month, faring a little better than the 3.8% decline seen in the broader MSCI Asia Pacific Index.
Geopolitical tensions and “mixed 2Q earnings in India have made investors jittery about the near-term prospects of domestic markets, leading to a selloff,” said Shrikant Chouhan, an analyst with Kotak Securities Ltd. Foreign investors’ buying of Indian shares may resume once valuations ease and the volatility in global markets fades, he added.
