Rs 30K crore purchase! FPIs add consumer durables, IT; power stocks face selloff heat

Consumer durables received the highest foreign inflows across sectors worth ₹5,297 crore in the second half of August after seeing selling to the tune of ₹584 crore during the first half of the month. From January to July, overseas investors had pulled ₹3,889 crore out of the shares in the sector.

Foreign investors bought shares worth ₹30,845 crore across 15 sectors between August 16 and 31, according to data from National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL).

After selling shares worth ₹493 crore in the first-half of August, foreign investors infused funds into information technology stocks worth ₹4,529 crore between August 16 and 31. The sector witnessed inflows worth ₹11,763 crore in July.

"Based on NSDL data, in the past couple of months, foreign investors are positioning more in defensive sectors, like FMCG and pharma, and now consumer durables and tech in the second-half of August," said Sriram Velayudhan, senior vice president, IIFL Securities.

Some of the flows into IT can be attributed to the addition of Oracle Financial Services in the MSCI India August rebalancing, Velayudhan added.

Nifty Consumer Durables Index and Nifty IT Index rose 3.9% and 4.74%, respectively, in August; while the benchmark Nifty gained 1.14% during the same period.

Foreigners renewed their buying in the services sector, allocating ₹4,251 crore to the sector after dumping shares worth ₹2,088 crore in the first 15 days of the month. Financial services, oil & gas and healthcare sectors received inflows worth over ₹2,000 crore each.

They were sellers to the tune of ₹4,704 crore across eight sectors in the second-half of the month, offloading shares worth ₹2,305 crore in the power sector, after purchasing worth ₹1,169 crore in the first-half of the month.

Velayudhan said that the interest rate cut by the US Fed in September could trigger inflows into tech and financials, but markets will have to wait and watch.