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Foreign investors continue to buy, with financials top the list

By Sohail Khan 21 August 2026, 5:46 am

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Business News›Markets›Stocks›News›FPIs turn bullish on financials, autos and IT in first half of August

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FPIs turn bullish on financials, autos and IT in first half of August

Synopsis

Overseas investors showed strong buying in early August, marking four consecutive fortnights of inflows. Financial services and automobiles attracted the highest foreign investment during this period. Broader markets demonstrated resilience, with investors favoring mid-cap names within key sectors. Foreign investors net bought shares worth ₹16,621 crore across sectors during August 1-15. This trend signals a potential turnaround phase in sentiment towards India.

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Foreign investors continue to buy, with financials top the list<br> — Money trail ₹16,621 cr foreign money flowed into stocks during Aug 1-15, with financials taking ₹6,535 cr; analysts see sector as undervalued with a 3 to 5-year growth visibility.

Mumbai: Overseas investors remained net buyers across sectors in the first half of August, marking the fourth consecutive fortnight of inflows and the strongest run of purchases for a two-week period since early February, NSDL data showed.

Financial services attracted the highest foreign buying during the period, followed by automobiles & auto components' stocks, consumer services, healthcare and information technology companies. In contrast, telecom, capital goods, power and realty witnessed the highest outflows.

Of the 24 sectors tracked, 14 got flows, while nine saw outflows.

"Although the Nifty has pulled back nearly 500 points from its recent highs due to rising bond yields, broader markets have demonstrated notable resilience, remaining largely flat. This performance signals a strategic shift among FIIs: rather than allocating capital to large-cap heavyweights, they appear to be favouring mid-cap names within key sectors," said Pankaj Pandey, head of fundamental research, ICICI Direct.

ET Bureau

Money trail ₹16,621 cr foreign money flowed into stocks during Aug 1-15, with financials taking ₹6,535 cr; analysts see sector as undervalued with a 3 to 5-year growth visibility

Foreign investors net bought shares worth ₹16,621 crore across sectors during August 1-15, after investing more than ₹20,200 crore in July, according to NSDL data.

Despite remaining net sellers of financial services stocks in July, the tide turned for the sector this time around, with buying seen for ₹6,535 crore.

IT stocks also saw buying for the third straight fortnight.

"Financial services is one of the sectors which has very clear growth visibility over the next 3-5 years and is significantly undervalued. It can be a pick for the long term oriented FPIs," said Vikas Gupta, CEO at OmniScience Capital. "IT seems more like a tactical trading bet given the huge uncertainty in terms of manpower, revenues and earnings predictably from a 5 year perspective."

Read more: Jefferies favours two-wheeler stocks over four-wheeler stocks as earnings gap widens

Gupta said that assuming that FPIs continue allocating to India, this is probably an initial positive trickle indicative of a turnaround phase in sentiment towards India and non-AI allocations.

Pandey said that FPI investments drove the Auto index to fresh all-time highs despite muted performance from major OEMs like Maruti and M&M, and positive inflows in IT hint that the worst of the downturn may be behind it.

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