Rising crude oil prices and high valuations of domestic equities propelled Foreign Portfolio Investors to turn net sellers in FMCG, automobile, and several other sectors during the second half of March. They even moderated their fund infusions in capital goods and real estate sectors, which have been among their hot favourite bets in India during the year, leading to overall net outflows of $673 mln from Indian equities between Mar 16-Mar 31, data from National Securities Depository Ltd showed.

While the heavy inflows seen in the first half led to March seeing the highest net inflows in three months at $4.24 billion, the trend seen in the second half of March has continued in the initial few sessions in FY25.

“Two things happened in the first half of March. First was CAD (Current Account Deficit) number, which was much better-than-expected. We also had GDP number at roughly 8%,”said Priyam Shah, partner at Falcon Capital Partners, talking about the heavy …