In the first two weeks of February, the Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) became net sellers of financial services shares, offloading stocks worth Rs 7,536 crore.
The assets under custody (AUC) for FIIs stood at Rs 68.04 lakh crore as of February 15, of which Rs 62.84 lakh crore were in equities.
Construction and telecom sectors sold Rs 4,251 crore of shares and Rs 3,766 crore of shares respectively. Significant selling was also observed in fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) at Rs 3,011 crore, power at Rs 2,895 crore, metal at Rs 1,067 crore, and chemicals at Rs 790 crore, based on the fortnightly sector-wise data from the National Securities Depository.
The data further said the healthcare, information technology, consumer services, and automobile/auto components saw net FII inflows during this period.
Healthcare attracted around Rs 4,212 crore followed by IT and consumer services, with Rs 3,240 crore and Rs 3,041 crore.
Sectors such as automobile and auto components, services, oil gas and consumable fuels, capital goods and realty saw buying worth Rs 2,539 crore, Rs 1,976 crore, Rs 1,035 crore, Rs 921 crore and Rs 574 crore, respectively.
Notably, the foreign portfolio investors have sold $3.5 billion in Indian equities so far 2024, but much of that has been offset by strong domestic inflows, high net-worth individuals, retail investors directly investing in stocks and mutual funds.
In January, a record Rs 18,838 crore was invested in mutual funds through SIPs, mostly in mid and smallcap stocks.