FPIs Withdraw Rs 13,138 Crore in First Two Weeks of September
New Delhi: Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs), in the first two weeks of September, till September 11, have pulled out Rs 13,138 crore from Indian equities. These are large funds and institutions outside India that buy and sell Indian stock exchanges. This has resulted in three things: crude oil prices are surging, the US dollar is strengthening, and American bond yields are climbing.
The reversal is abrupt because in July and August, these same investors had been buying, putting in Rs 20,200 crore and Rs 29,630 crore, respectively, according to data from the Central Depository Services (India) Ltd (CDSL). Before that, they had been selling for four straight months from March to June.
Total FPI outflows from Indian equities in 2026 have now crossed Rs 2.37 lakh crore, which is already more than the Rs 1.66 lakh crore withdrawn across all of 2025.
Vedant Gupte, CEO of investment platform Trackk highlighted the importance of global factors told news agency PTI: “September selling is a dollar-and-crude story, not an India story. When U.S. yields firm up and oil climbs, money leaves every emerging market.”
Brent crude hit $109.97 per barrel on September 11, well above its July high of $102 per barrel, driven largely by the ongoing Iran-US conflict.
Speaking to PTI, V.K. Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Investments, cautioned that a US 10-year bond yield at 5%, could precipitate a sharp global sell-off, and FPIs may "turn sellers and move money to high-yielding bonds".
Meanwhile, foreign investors also extended selling to the debt market, withdrawing Rs 1,305 crore in total through the Fully Accessible Route (FAR) and Rs 955 crore through general route, while investing Rs 29 crore through the Voluntary Retention Route (VRR).
The Iran war initiated by the US-Israel attack earlier in the year is further going to impact FPIs flows and consequently impact crude oil prices.
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