FPI Selling, Week to October 23, 2026: Foreigners Ease Off as DIIs Buy ₹10,942 Crore

FPI selling did not stop last week, but it lost a lot of its bite. Foreign institutional investors sold a net ₹2,697.37 crore of Indian shares across the four trading sessions to Friday, October 23, according to provisional exchange data compiled by CNBC-TV18. Domestic institutions bought a net ₹10,942.19 crore over the same sessions, so for every rupee foreigners took out, local funds put in roughly four.

How FPI selling played out day by day

This was not a one-way week. Foreigners sold on two days and bought on two. DIIs, meanwhile, were buyers every single session.

Thursday did most of the damage. Take it out and foreigners were close to flat for the week. Add the four FII figures up and you get the ₹2,697.37 crore outflow; the DII column sums to ₹10,942.19 crore.

The market fell anyway

Steady domestic buying did not stop the slide. The Nifty fell more than 2% over the week, the midcap index dropped 6% and the smallcap index 7%, and BSE-listed companies lost over ₹20 lakh crore in market value, the same CNBC-TV18 report said. Breadth was poor. Only six Nifty stocks ended the week higher, while 20 fell 4% or more. Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, Trent, Nestle India, Shriram Finance and Adani Enterprises were among the biggest Nifty losers. We looked at the damage lower down the market in our note on the Smallcap 250’s weekly fall.

That gap matters. DII money cushions large caps, but it clearly was not enough to hold up the broader market when sentiment turned.

What NSDL’s data shows for October and 2026

The depository numbers paint a bigger picture. NSDL’s monthly FPI report shows a net equity outflow of ₹48,056 crore in October up to October 23. That comes after ₹35,861 crore went out in September, and it reverses the inflows of ₹20,200 crore in July and ₹29,631 crore in August. For calendar 2026 so far, net FPI equity outflow stands at ₹3,08,358 crore.

The two data sources often disagree, and that trips people up. The daily FII figures above are provisional exchange numbers for trades on that day. NSDL’s figures come from custodian reports and include primary-market deals such as IPOs and placements. On October 23, for example, NSDL’s daily report showed FPIs as net sellers of ₹2,262.17 crore through the stock exchange, but ₹2,417.14 crore of primary-market and other buying turned the equity total into a small net inflow of ₹154.97 crore. Two datasets, two different numbers, and both are correct for what they measure.

What this means for investors

A slower pace of foreign selling is a better sign than a faster one, but one mixed week is not a trend. At ₹48,056 crore, October is already the fourth-largest monthly equity outflow of 2026 in NSDL’s data, behind March, April and June, and the broader market is where the selling hurts most. We would watch two things this week: whether Thursday-style heavy selling returns, and whether DIIs keep absorbing it. If you hold mid and small caps, our guide to risk management in trading covers position sizing for weeks like this one. For the earlier part of the month, see our look at the FPI outflow in October 2026.

Disclaimer: This article is for information and education only and is not investment advice. Please do your own research or consult a SEBI-registered adviser before investing.