Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) continued to be net sellers in April 2025 – till April 17, 2025 – as the domestic market witnessed increased volatility amid US President Donald Trump’s tariff tantrums, followed by a sharp recovery over the past few sessions.
According to data from the National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL), FPIs have so far pulled out a total of Rs 23,103 crore this month, continuing the sell-off for the fourth consecutive month.
In January this year, FPIs sold Indian equities worth Rs 78,027 crore, followed by a sell-off of Rs 34,574 crore in February, and Rs 3,973 crore in March.
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So far in 2025, FPIs sold domestic equities worth Rs 1,39,677 crore.
FPIs Dump IT Stocks In April
FPIs have been heavily bearish on the Information Technology (IT) sector in April so far, offloading Rs 13,828 crore from the sector between April 1 and April 15, 2025.
This amount constitutes more than half of the total selling by FPIs till April 17, 2025..
The Nifty IT index, which tracks the performance of India’s top 10 IT stocks, has tumbled 9.53 per cent during the month so far.
The sell-off in IT stocks has come amid a slew of global and domestic macroeconomic cues.
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April was marred by Trump’s back-and-forth tariff decisions, which induced massive volatility in the domestic as well as the global markets.
The imposition of tariffs on over 90 countries raised fears of a potential recession in the US—an important market for India’s IT services industry. A recession would mean low tech spending by the US government, which would translate to lower earnings by Indian IT firms.
However, later, trump announced a 90-day pause on these tariffs for further negotiations, easing some of the market jitters.
Amid this, US Federal Reserve Chief Jerome Powell’s cautious remarks on rate cuts added more fuel to the fire.
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Sumit Pokharna, vice-president, fundamental research, Kotak Securities had earlier told Outlook Money: "Powell said that the Fed was focused on ensuring the impact of tariffs only has a one-time boost to inflation, dashing investor hopes that the central bank could lean toward rate cuts to cushion the potential blow to the economy."
IT stocks are also under pressure after Wipro’s muted Q1 FY26 revenue guidance. The IT services major has said that its IT services revenue is likely to decline by as much as 3.5 per cent for FY26, as global uncertainties continue to weigh on demand.
Following IT stocks, FPIs offloaded Rs 4,501 crore from the financial services sector. The capital goods sector also saw a sell-off of Rs 3,019 crore during April’s first fortnight.
