Oil and gas, financials, autos, FMCG, power and capital goods. By NSDL's sector data, foreign investors net sold US$10.8 billion of Indian shares over the six months May to October 2026, and bought only in July and August.
Net foreign selling, May to October 2026, in US$ billion:
- Oil and gas: 3.8, sold every month, July only slightly
- Financials: 3.4, mostly in May
- Autos: 3.0
- FMCG: 2.6
- Power: 1.7, sold every month
- Capital goods: 1.4
What they bought. Services was the only sector bought in every month (US$1.8 billion), where NSE's services group is ports, airports, airlines, shipping and logistics. IT, consumer services, consumer durables and healthcare were also net bought over the period, and IT's US$1.1 billion came mostly in October.
The five sessions to 6 November. From the 30 October close to the 6 November close, the Nifty 50 rose 8.6%. Three of the four most-sold sectors rose more: Nifty Financial Services 10.4%, Nifty Oil and Gas 9.6% and Nifty Auto 9.4%. FMCG (7.3%), power (3.7%) and capital goods (2.3%) rose less. In the same sessions foreign institutions cut their index-futures shorts from 275,190 contracts to 149,072, a 46% fall, and their longs rose from 34,437 to 48,656, per NSE participant data. They are still net short by about 100,400 contracts. NSE's provisional cash data for 2 to 6 November shows foreign institutions buying Rs 45,960 crore and domestic institutions selling Rs 24,197 crore.
What the data does not show. Prices are not flows. The NSDL sector data stops at the end of October, and no source gives sector flows for 2 to 6 November. That these sectors rose while the shorts were covered is a correlation. The foreign investors may have bought back part of what they sold, or it may be the start of a longer buy. NSDL's next sector report, covering trades to about 12 November, is due about 20 to 24 November.
Will they sell again? The last two bounces did not hold: US$2.5 billion bought in February and then US$27.8 billion sold from March to June, and US$5.2 billion bought in July and August and then US$7.3 billion sold in September and October.
For information only. Not investment advice. Full post with the heat map: https://www.tigzig.com/post/india-fpi-sectors-six-months-selling-nov2026. Related: is foreign money coming back to India? and how much have foreign investors taken out of Indian stocks?
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