After a year of relentless selling, foreign funds have poured ₹53,739 crore into Indian shares in the first nine days of November, their biggest monthly buying since September 2024. The rally they’ve powered extended on Wednesday. Whether it lasts depends on three things outside India.
The reversal is being seen, and Dalal Street is feeling it.
Foreign portfolio investors bought a net ₹53,739 crore of Indian equities between 2 and 9 November, according to NSDL data, in just six trading sessions. That makes November their biggest month of buying since September 2024 It ends a 10-month streak of monthly selling.
Foreign funds also bought ₹7,480 crore of Indian government bonds in the first nine days of November, according to Clearing Corporation of India data, their strongest month of bond buying since July.
The money is moving the market. On Wednesday, the first session after the Balipratipada holiday, the Sensex jumped more than 1,200 points and hit an intraday high of 82,520.40. The Nifty touched 25,424.35. Both indices have gained nearly 10% in eight sessions.
The daily drumbeat
Exchange data shows how concentrated the buying has been. Foreign investors bought ₹7,284 crore on 4 November, ₹14,975 crore on 5 November, their largest single day in more than a year, ₹13,750 crore on 6 November and ₹7,212 crore on 9 November, according to provisional figures.
Foreign investors sold ₹35,861 crore in September and ₹34,843 crore in October, according to NSDL. Even after November’s buying, they remain net sellers of about ₹2.41 lakh crore of Indian equities in 2026, after ₹1.66 lakh crore of selling in 2025.
There was a twist in the year’s selling. Through 12 October, foreign funds sold ₹3.64 lakh crore of listed shares but invested ₹56,485 crore through IPOs and other primary offerings. They were trimming expensive holdings.
The role reversal
While foreigners sold through most of the year, domestic investors held the market up. Domestic institutions, mainly mutual funds and insurers, invested a net ₹6.83 lakh crore in Indian equities in 2026 up to mid-October, helped by steady SIP flows from millions of retail investors. They now own a record share of Indian companies, about 17%.
This month, the roles have flipped. Domestic institutions have been net sellers in every session of the rally, taking profits as foreign funds rebuild positions. They sold ₹10,445 crore on 5 November, ₹5,969 crore on 6 November and ₹7,173 crore on 9 November.
Why they came back
Three forces drove the reversal: the global sell-off in AI stocks, which made India attractive as a large market with little AI hardware exposure; cheaper valuations after months of selling; and solid September-quarter earnings combined with a sharp fall in oil. Brent crude has dropped about $20 a barrel in nine days, and the rupee has strengthened to around 93.8 per dollar.
Foreign investors usually buy large, liquid companies first: the biggest banks, consumer companies, carmakers and index heavyweights. IT is the exception. According to SEBI data, IT’s share of foreign investors’ Indian holdings fell to 6.3% at the end of March 2026 from 9% a year earlier.
Three risks could interrupt the flow, and two intensified this week.
The Federal Reserve. US consumer prices rose more than expected in October, and markets raised the odds of a half-point rate increase in December. Higher US rates tend to pull money back towards American bonds.
An AI rebound. Wall Street had its best day since April on Monday as chip stocks bounced. If AI shares recover strongly, some money that rotated into India could rotate back.
Giant listings elsewhere. Anthropic, the US AI company, set a price range of $70 to $78 a share for its Nasdaq listing on Tuesday. At the top of the range, the offering could raise about $64 billion, roughly ₹6 lakh crore, from the same pool of global money.
For investors, the takeaway is to watch the daily flow data. After 10 months of selling, foreign funds have plenty of room to buy more, and each day’s numbers will show whether the rally still has their support.
About The Author
