Look at the FII DII data monthly for 2026 and one pattern jumps out: foreigners keep selling Indian shares and domestic institutions keep buying them. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have been net sellers in the cash market in every single month of 2026 so far. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) have been net buyers in every one of those months.
The monthly numbers below are exchange provisional cash-market figures, as compiled on Kotak Neo’s FII/DII data page. October runs only up to October 9.
In this article
FII DII data monthly: 2026 so far (₹ crore, net)
| Month | FII net | DII net |
|---|---|---|
| January | -41,435.22 | +69,220.74 |
| February | -6,640.76 | +38,423.11 |
| March | -1,22,540.41 | +1,42,960.37 |
| April | -67,299.84 | +55,828.03 |
| May | -58,904.68 | +84,965.63 |
| June | -48,785.60 | +89,591.56 |
| July | -7,261.55 | +34,544.65 |
| August | -7,655.03 | +59,617.79 |
| September | -47,143.48 | +79,747.70 |
| October (to Oct 9) | -39,778.51 | +40,355.32 |
What the totals come to
- FII net selling, Jan 1 to Oct 9, 2026: about ₹4,47,445 crore
- DII net buying, same period: about ₹6,95,255 crore
We added these up ourselves from the monthly exchange figures above. NSDL’s FPI series works differently and also picks up primary-market deals. On that basis, 2026 FPI equity outflows stood at ₹3,04,468 crore as of last week, Mint reported. So don’t compare the two series head to head.
Three things the data tells us
1. March was the worst month
FIIs dumped a net ₹1,22,540 crore in March 2026, the biggest monthly number this year. DIIs soaked it up with ₹1,42,960 crore of net buying.
2. Selling came back from September
July and August were quieter, with roughly ₹7,000-8,000 crore of FII selling each. Then September outflows shot up to ₹47,143 crore. October has already hit ₹39,779 crore in only six trading sessions.
3. DIIs have more than covered FIIs
DII net buying has topped FII net selling in every month of 2026 bar one. That was April, when FIIs sold ₹67,300 crore and DIIs bought ₹55,828 crore.
How 2026 stacks up against earlier years
Go further back in the same data and FIIs were big sellers in late 2024 and early 2025 too. They sold ₹1,14,446 crore in October 2024 and ₹93,276 crore in January 2025. Between March and June 2025, though, they were net buyers. DIIs, meanwhile, have bought in every month since August 2023.
Why foreign investors keep selling
Mint points to three pressures: a strong dollar near an 18-month high, US 10-year bond yields above 5.2%, and expensive crude. Geojit’s V K Vijayakumar told Mint that FPI selling is “rational” as long as US yields stay this high. For the day-by-day numbers, see our FII DII data today report.
What it means for investors
Steady domestic money, a big chunk of it from mutual fund SIPs and insurers, is now what’s holding the market up. Still, the heaviest FII selling lands on the large caps foreigners own most. That’s a big reason the Nifty has lagged while smallcaps have held up better on some days, as we saw in smallcap stocks rise today.
We keep the month-to-date picture updated on our Stock Market Today India hub.
Sources: exchange provisional cash-market data via Kotak Neo (as of Oct 9, 2026); Mint (Oct 12, 2026). Totals are our own calculations from the monthly figures.
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