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Heavy FPI Selling Returns in September 2025 — Who Bought, Who Sold?
Foreign portfolio investors sold $1.1 billion in equities during the first half of September 2025, led by exits from IT, Power, and Consumer Services. Automobiles, Financials, and Capital Goods emerged as bright spots, attracting selective buying. With bond inflows of $600 million and macro fears easing, markets await a rebound in H2 FY26.
Written by: SERNET Research Team
Table of Content
September 2025 H1 – Heavy FPI Selling In Equities
FPI flow data for first fortnight of September 2025 saw heavy selling in equities. This time around, the selling was triggered by tariff uncertainty, and muted Q1FY26 earnings. In first fortnight of September 2025, FPIs sold equities worth $(1,105) million but infused $600 million into bonds anticipating a 25-bps rate cut in October. As of September 15, 2025, FPI equity AUC was $820 billion, while overall FPI AUC stood at $899 billion. Both are down in recent months and overall AUC is well below Sep-24 peak of $1.01 trillion!
| Sectoral
Classification |
FPI Flows
($ Million) |
Sectoral
Classification |
FPI Flows
($ Million) |
| Automobile and Components | 216 | Textiles | -14 |
| Financial Services | 185 | Consumer Durables | -37 |
| Capital Goods | 172 | Fast Moving Consumer Goods | -124 |
| Metals & Mining | 158 | Construction Materials | -135 |
| Services | 27 | Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels | -170 |
| Construction | 15 | Telecommunication | -170 |
| Others | 15 | Healthcare | -181 |
| Chemicals | 3 | Realty | -218 |
| Forest Materials | -1 | Information Technology | -228 |
| Media, Entertainment | -2 | Power | -239 |
| Diversified | -4 | Consumer Services | -368 |
| Utilities | -5 | Grand Total | -1,105 |
| Data Source: NSDL | |||
FPI Selling Clearly Dominated In September 2025
Out of the 23 sectors covered by NSDL, 8 sectors saw net FPI buying while 15 sectors saw net selling in the first fortnight of September 2025. A total of 4 sectors attracted net FPI buying of over $100 million, with just 1 sector seeing net buying of over $200 million. On the sell side, 9 sectors saw net selling of more than $100 million of which 4 sectors sold off more than $200 million. The selling is spreading to more sectors and that would be the immediate concern for markets as the fears are getting macro. With heads of state of India and the US making the right noises, there is hope of revival of FPI flows in H2.
Sectors Driving FPI Action In First Fortnight Of September 2025
From the perspective of sectoral themes, the following 6 items are of relevance.
- Automobiles attracted FPI buying of $216 million on the back of GST cut hopes and expectations of lower rates. Lower risk weights on auto loans also helped.
- The other 3 sectors that attracted buying of over $100 million were domestic India-specific stories; including financial services, capital goods, and metals & mining.
- On the sell-side, consumer services saw net selling of $368 million, largely due to the exit from retail names, largely on the back of rising competition from digital plays.
- There was heavy selling of over $200 million in IT and power. For IT, the concerns were on tech spending, while power was about weakening rupee concerns.
- Two other themes that sold off due to rich valuations were realty and healthcare, with both these sectors raising serious questions on earnings quality versus P/E.
- Oil and FMCG were two other sectors that also saw heavy selling. For Oil it is more about volatile crude, while for FMCG it was about the elusive urban demand.
A lot will depend on the discussions between PM Modi and President Trump; and any positive progress could trigger a positive turnaround in FPI action in Indian equities.
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