Real estate and consumer services companies' stocks accounted for the maximum foreign portfolio investor (FPI) buying during December 1-December 15, a report by Business Standard stated.
FPIs bought realty stocks worth ₹3,150 crore and consumer services shares worth ₹2,676 crore, according to the data collated by PRIME Infobase, said the report.
It further highlighted that fast-moving consumer goods or FMCG ( ₹2,649 crore), capital goods ( ₹1,984 crore), and metal and mining stocks ( ₹1,391 crore) were the other sectors FPIs parked their money in during the first two weeks of December.
A combination of sectoral rotation and better consumer spending is attributed to the shift towards realty and consumer services stocks, the report pointed out. FMCG stocks are considered defensive bets whenever there is global financial turmoil, it added.
Alternatively, the report informed that FPIs dumped oil and gas stocks worth ₹2,230 crore, and information and technology (IT) stocks worth ₹1,314 crore. The sector allocation of FPIs to IT stocks declined to 10.4 percent as of December 15 this year, it added.
The highest allocation was to financial services at 32.69 percent, followed by oil and gas stocks, said the BS report.
Overall, in the current year so far, FPIs have withdrawn funds worth ₹1.22 lakh crore ($16.58 billion) from the Indian equity market and are on track to hit the highest-ever outflows in a calendar year.
Factors including interest rate hikes by major central banks, weakness in the rupee, fears of a global recession and a spike in commodity prices are to be blamed for a continuous pullout by overseas investors from domestic stocks, the report said.
In July, FPIs turned net buyers after nine straight months of massive net outflows, which started in October last year. Between October 2021 and June 2022, they pulled out a massive ₹2.46 lakh crore from the Indian equity market.
