FIIs net buy shares worth Rs 1,796 crore; DIIs pump Rs 300 crore on May 23

Just a day after a sharp sell-off, bulls staged a strong comeback on May 22, with benchmark indices Nifty and Sensex rebounding sharply, led by a rally in banking, IT, and metal stocks.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net bought equities worth Rs 1,796 crore on May 23, just a day after selling over Rs 5,000 crore. Meanwhile, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) continued providing support to the market with a net purchase of Rs 300 crore, provisional data from the NSE showed.

During the trading session of May 23, DIIs bought shares worth Rs 10,011 crore and sold shares worth Rs 9,711 crore. FIIs purchased shares worth Rs 11,054 crore and sold shares worth Rs 9,259 crore.

For the year so far, FIIs have been net sellers of shares worth Rs 1.20 lakh crore, while DIIs have net bought Rs 2.42 lakh crore worth of shares.

Market Performance

Just a day after a sharp sell-off, bulls staged a strong comeback on May 22, with benchmark indices Nifty and Sensex rebounding sharply, led by a rally in banking, IT, and metal stocks. The upbeat sentiment spilt over to the broader markets as well, with mid and smallcap indices gaining up to nearly a percent in intraday trade.

Volatility remained contained despite global uncertainty. The India VIX — the market’s fear gauge — rose marginally by 1 percent to 17. According to Dadheech, this modest uptick in volatility, along with the recent outperformance of broader indices over large-caps, points to underlying market resilience.

Sectoral indices were largely in the green. FMCG stocks led the rally with a 1.58 percent rise in the Nifty FMCG index, followed by a 1.48 percent jump in IT stocks. Private banks saw strong buying, pushing the Nifty Private Bank index up by 1.01 percent. Nifty Bank gained 0.81 percent, while the Nifty Energy, Infra, Media, and Metal indices also posted gains of around 0.85–0.97 percent. Auto, Realty, and Consumer Durables recorded modest upticks. The only significant laggard was Nifty Pharma, which declined by 0.68 percent.

Top gainers on the Nifty included Eternal, Jio Financial, HDFC Life, ITC, and SBI Life Insurance, while the losers were Sun Pharma and Mahindra & Mahindra.