The mood among foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) with respect to the Indian stock market is very positive and they have a lot of faith in India’s growth story, said SEBI chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey.
Pandey, who took charge as SEBI chairman on March 1, has recently returned from the US after meeting many foreign investors while attending a conference of global market regulators under the aegis of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO).
“I think the overall mood has been very positive. This was my sense… I met plenty of FPI investors in Washington D.C., in New York, in Boston… there were very positive things about India in the meetings that we had under the Financial Stability Engagement Group, under the IMF-IOSCO track,” said Pandey, in an exclusive interaction with Moneycontrol.
The SEBI chairman’s comments come at a time when there has been a trend reversal with FPIs turning net buyers of Indian shares on most days in the recent past.
In the current month, FPIs are net buyers at nearly Rs 1,900 crore ($234 million) after being net sellers in each of the first three months of the current calendar year.
Incidentally, since April 11 when the rally started FIIs have been net buyers of shares worth over Rs 24,000 crore thereby reversing the trend seen in the first half of April and the earlier three months of 2025 – net FPI selling in January and February was pegged at Rs 78,027 crore and Rs 34574 crore, respectively.
When asked about the FPI sell-off in the current calendar year, Pandey highlighted the fact that FPIs have invested $58 billion across equity and debt in the last five years.
“I would say that if you look at the data, in the last five years, net $58 billion foreign investment has come in both debt and equity… the phenomenon that you are talking about of FPIs going, it was basically post, September, October 2024. And, of course, substantial FPIs went away. And, again… you see the last few days a reversal of this trend”, said Pandey.
Pandey, a 1987 batch IAS officer of the Odisha cadre, attributed the recent FPI sell-off of to various factors including market valuation, uncertainty about new administration in USA, the China Vs India comparison of markets.
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