FIIs sell stocks worth Rs 22,693 crore in August-September

By Biswajit Baruah and Ramanatha Pai

Global investors have sold shares worth about Rs 22,693 crore in August-September this year on concerns over the US Federal Reserve increasing interest rates and a slowdown in China. The current selloff by foreign institutional investors ( FIIs) is more compared to the Rs 22,639 crore they had offloaded during the ‘taper tantrum’ between June and August 2013 when the US Fed announced tapering of its quantitative easing programme. The Sensex has fallen about 8.87 per cent in the past one-and-half months, which is more than 5.7 per cent drop seen during the three months ended August 2013. Thanks to domestic institutional investors (DII) who have invested Rs 21,918 crore during August-September this year, midcaps and smallcap stocks have fallen much less. The BSE Mid Cap index has dropped 6.8 per cent since August 1 this year which is lower compared to the 17 per cent drop witnessed during the taper tantrum of 2013. The rupee has also shown resilience this time as the currency has declined only 2.2 per cent against a 9.2 per cent fall seen during June-August 2013.