Foreign investors’ ownership of Indian equities has fallen to its lowest level in nearly 15 years amid valuation concerns, geopolitical uncertainty, and elevated US bond yields, even as they returned to the market as net buyers in the September quarter.
A Mint analysis of 5,638 BSE-listed companies sourced from the CMIE database showed that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) held 14.02% of shares at the end of the September quarter (Q2FY27), their lowest since December 2011. Their ownership fell nearly 0.4 percentage points sequentially and 154 basis points over the past year. It is now 6.07 percentage points below its December 2020 peak of 20.09%, reflecting a sustained retreat by overseas investors.
FPIs, however, turned net buyers during the September quarter, net investing ₹13,970 crore. They had pulled out ₹1.43 trillion in the June quarter and ₹1.31 trillion in the March quarter. Their net outflows for 2026 so far stand at ₹2.9 trillion.
FPIs had withdrawn ₹76,619 crore in the September quarter of 2025. Net outflows for the first nine months of 2025 were at ₹1.5 trillion.
In the final week of October, FPIs bought stocks worth more than ₹14,000 crore. However, they remained net sellers for the month, pulling out ₹34,843 crore, as per NSDL data.