FIIs sell ₹1,708 crore worth of shares as Sensex, Nifty fall; DIIs buy ₹3,045 crore

Foreign investors continued to sell Indian shares on Monday, October 12, while domestic institutions stepped in to buy stocks, provisional exchange data showed.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers of equities worth ₹1,708.48 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were net buyers worth ₹3,045.02 crore.

FIIs bought shares worth ₹12,583.21 crore and sold ₹14,291.69 crore during the session. DIIs purchased equities worth ₹15,506.73 crore and sold ₹12,461.71 crore.

On Friday, FIIs had sold shares worth ₹3,568.90 crore on a net basis, while DIIs bought ₹4,743.26 crore. This resulted in net institutional buying of ₹1,174.36 crore.

The fund flows on Monday came as Indian equity benchmarks ended lower. The Sensex fell 548 points to 71,925, while the Nifty declined 157 points to 22,363. Both indices closed near the day's lows, although midcap stocks performed relatively better.

The midcap index rose 47 points to 58,835, while the Nifty Bank fell 339 points to settle at 54,918. Banking stocks remained under pressure following the Reserve

Bank of India's measures concerning cash reserve ratio (CRR) requirements.

Hospital stocks fell sharply in the final hour of trading as investors tracked a Supreme Court hearing on drug pricing. Avenue Supermarts, which operates DMart, declined more than 4% after its second-quarter results highlighted margin pressure. Lenskart also fell over 4% amid a large trade, with Alpha Wave likely to have been the seller.

Stocks sensitive to crude oil prices also declined as Brent crude rose to $106 per barrel. IndiGo and Asian Paints fell nearly 1% each. Goodluck India, however, jumped more than 14% following its proposed restructuring announcement.

Market breadth was weak, with declining stocks outnumbering advancing stocks by roughly one to one.

FII and DII activity last week

Foreign institutional investors sold Indian equities worth ₹30,294 crore on a net basis during the week ended October 9. Domestic institutional investors bought shares worth ₹30,313 crore, according to provisional exchange data.

During the week, FIIs purchased equities worth ₹65,610.73 crore and sold ₹95,904.02 crore. DIIs bought shares worth ₹95,434.53 crore and sold ₹65,122.06 crore.

FIIs were net sellers in all five trading sessions, with their largest daily net outflow of ₹12,943.58 crore recorded on October 8. DIIs consistently supported the market, recording their strongest net buying of ₹10,703.11 crore on the same day.

Also Read: DIIs offset foreign selling with ₹30,313 crore buying as Sensex, Nifty snap 8-week losing streak