Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) pulled out around ₹7,712 crore from Indian equities in this month so far following the ‘super-rich’ tax announced in the budget for 2019-20, according to analysts. FPIs had been net investors in the equity segment in the previous five months.

According to the latest data available with depositories, a net sum of ₹7,712.12 crore has been pulled out from equities during July 1-19. However, foreign portfolio investors (FPI) pumped in ₹9,371.12 crore in the debt segment during the period.

This has translated into a net investment of around ₹1,659 crore in July so far into the capital markets (both equity and debt).

Commenting on the massive withdrawal from equities, Himanshu Srivastava, senior analyst manager research at Morningstar said, “FPIs have been on a selling spree ever since government proposed ‘super-rich’ tax in its budget and with no respite in sight from the government, the quantum of net outflows shot up.”

Besides, other factors which are keeping foreign investors at bay from investing in Indian markets are a tepid earning season, slower pace of GDP growth, sub-par monsoon and lowering of India’s growth forecast from Asian Development Bank, he added.

He further added that from an investment perspective, the current scenario is clearly “unfavourable” for FPIs to invest in Indian equities. Considering the global factors, Harsh Jain, COO at Groww said: “equity markets saw a net withdrawal this week as international tensions like US-Iran kept investors sentiments jittery while within India, quarterly results of a few companies also failed to meet the street’s expectations.”

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