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Morning Edition · Saturday, October 3, 2026Published at 1:22 AM EDT · New York
Indian equities head for an eighth straight weekly decline as foreign investors keep selling
The Nifty 50 fell 2.3% this week, and foreign portfolio investors have withdrawn roughly $28 billion from Indian shares so far in 2026.
India's benchmark indices are completing their eighth consecutive weekly fall, with the Nifty 50 down 2.3% and the Sensex down 1.9% over the week. Foreign investors sold about $3.6 billion of Indian shares over five sessions and roughly $27.8 billion so far this year, Bloomberg reported, attributing the exit to the oil price rise that has undone the benefit of this year's domestic policy easing.
The losses are spread broadly across the market, not concentrated in a few companies. The Economic Times found that more than half of Indian companies with market capitalisation above 1,000 crore rupees (a crore equals 10 million) have delivered losses to shareholders in 2026, citing regulatory problems, funding costs, and margin pressure.
Primary issuance has not stopped. Companies raised about 39,000 crore rupees through initial public offerings (IPOs) in September, and 29 listings are scheduled even as the secondary market falls, supported by domestic liquidity rather than foreign money.
The source of the pressure is external: US yields above 5%, a dollar near a 17-month high, and crude near $100 a barrel are raising India's import bill, weakening the rupee, and making dollar deposits more attractive relative to Indian equity risk, all at once.
Part of a tracked trend
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What this means
The channel is the dollar funding cost combined with the oil import bill. India imports most of its crude, so a higher oil price widens the current-account deficit, weakens the rupee, and pushes the Reserve Bank of India toward defending the currency rather than supporting growth, which compresses the earnings multiple foreign investors will pay. The losers are mid-cap companies carrying floating-rate debt and the foreign investors already marked down on this year's positions. Domestic mutual-fund flows are absorbing the selling, which is why the IPO calendar still clears. The precedent is 2013 and again 2018, when a strong dollar and expensive crude produced sustained foreign selling in Indian equities that reversed only after oil fell and US yields peaked. The likelier outcome is continued foreign outflows while Brent trades near $100 and the 10-year Treasury yield stays above 5%, with the turn coming through the oil price rather than through Indian policy. If the G7 reserve release keeps crude below that level into the winter, the rupee and the index would both benefit.
What to watch
- Whether domestic mutual-fund inflows keep absorbing foreign selling, because a slowdown there would remove the support that has kept listings and valuations from falling faster.
- The rupee's exchange rate against the dollar, since currency weakness is the channel through which the oil price reaches Indian corporate margins.
- Pricing and first-day performance of the upcoming listings, which will show whether domestic investors still accept the valuations set during the September issuance rush.
Observations to monitor, not financial advice.
Synthesized from: Economic Times · Economic Times · BusinessMirror
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Comments
1Oct 3, 5:22 AM · edited
The $3.6 billion sold in five sessions is roughly 13% of the year's $27.8 billion outflow, which means the 39,000 crore rupee September issuance is being absorbed almost entirely by domestic buyers.