Foreign Investors Withdrawn Rs 1.1 Lakh Crore in March 2020 Due to COVID-19 Outbreak

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have net withdrawn a record Rs 1.1 lakh crore from the Indian markets in March as the coronavirus pandemic dented investor sentiment worldwide. According to latest depositories data, FPIs pulled out a net Rs 61,973 crore from equities and Rs 56,211 crore from the bond market in March, taking the cumulative net outflow to Rs 1,18,184 crore. The outflow of funds in March comes after six consecutive months of investment by FPIs since September 2019.

This is also the highest withdrawal ever since the FPI data has been made available by the National Securities Depository Ltd.

Besides, in just two trading sessions of April, FPIs have withdrawn a net sum of Rs 6,735 crore from the domestic markets. Out of this, Rs 3,802 crore were pulled out from equities and Rs 2,933 crore from the debt segment.

"The sell-off in March is mostly driven by quant funds, hedge funds, and risk parity funds," Harsh Jain, co-founder and COO at Groww said.

Terming the fund outflow as "unparalleled",  Himanshu Srivastava, senior analyst manager research, Morningstar India, said that with fear over the degree of impact that Covid-19 could leave on the global economy, foreign investors stormed out of the emerging markets, with India among the worst hit.