NOV 5: The Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net sellers of equities on the Indian bourses to the tune of Rs 271.70 crore in October which saw the benchmark Bombay Sensitive Index (Sensex) plunge below the 4,000 mark.FIIs pressed the sell button on 10 days out of the 20 days of equity trading that took place last month while they were net buyers on the remaining days.On the first day of trading this month, October 3, FIIs offloaded equities worth Rs 1,74.7 crore though the BSE sensex was up by 45 points and the same trend continued the next day with them being net sellers at Rs 111.5 crore, as per the data available with the Securities and Exchange Board of India.On October 5 and six the foreign investors were net buyers at Rs 36.7 crore and Rs 60.3 crore respectively while on October 9 they sold equities amounting to Rs 91.9 crore.The FIIs were net buyers at Rs 78.1 crore on October 10 when the move on rolling settlement affected the stock market sentiment leading to the Sensex falling by 110 points to 3945.Next day again the foreign investors turned buyers at Rs 135.1 crore though the Sensex plunged to a 16-month low of 3803.72 points on the back of information, communication and entertainment stocks taking a severe beating.On five consecutive days beginning October 12 the FIIs offloaded equities worth Rs 228.7 crore, Rs 129.4 crore, Rs 195.4 crore, Rs 9.5 crore and Rs 110.2 crore.Despite the Sensex moving up by 109 points on October 19, the FIIs made purchases of equities amounting to only Rs 1.4 crore and the same trend prevailed on October 20 and 23 with them buying stocks worth Rs 42.6 crore and 319.6 crore.In the remaining five days the high and low points were that the FIIs were net buyers on October 25 at Rs 260.8 crore while on October 31 they were net sellers at Rs 154.2 crore.In October, foreign investors were net buyers in the debt market at Rs 53.1 crore. Mutual funds (MFs) in October were net buyers in equities and debt at Rs 158.32 crore and Rs 483.64 crore.For the three days that the data is available with SEBI in the current month, FIIs were net buyers at Rs 69.9 crore (November 1), offloaded equities worth Rs 79.2 crore (November 2) but turned into buyers at Rs 269.4 crore.MFs bought stocks worth Rs 41.06 crore on November 1 while they were sellers the next day at Rs 31.73 crore. In the debt segment MFs were net buyers at Rs 43.51 crore and Rs 31.18 crore on these two days.
