FIIs sell big in Q3 on rising oil, US bonds, strong dollar

Coimbatore: Volatile crude oil prices, a strong dollar and rising US bond yields has resulted in foreign institutional investors (FIIs) turning into big sellers in the Indian market. Out of the 425 companies on the BSE-500 index for which shareholding data is available for the quarter ending December (Q3), there has been a decline in FII holdings in 256 companies. Only 169 companies saw net buying by FIIs.

Private banks, metals & materials and information technology (IT) companies were the worst hit by FII selling. Companies engaged in healthcare and chemicals businesses recorded an increase in FII holdings.

FIIs net sold shares to the tune of Rs 19,797 crore in October-December last year. The worst sell-off for 2018 came in October when overseas investors offloaded shares totalling Rs 28,921 crore, data with share depository NSDL showed.


Mid-cap IT stocks witnessed lower FII investments in Q3. Overseas investors reduced their stakes in NIIT Technologies (3.3 per cent fall), Persistent Systems (down by about 3 per cent), Mindtree (2.8 per cent decline) and Hexaware (2.4 per cent drop).

Public sector banks saw a slowdown in buying by overseas investors. FIIs have been bearish on the Indian banking sector due to the elevated non-performing asset levels.