How has the FII activity in the month of March and have they been selling very heavily in the Indian markets?

In just the last 13 trading sessions since Feb 24, the FIIs have pulled out Rs.36,211 crore from the Indian markets or close to $5 billion. That is a lot of money in a short span of time. A major chunk of Rs.32,746 crore was pulled out of equities while the balance Rs.3,475 crore was pulled out of debt. Clearly, the trend among FIIs appears to be risk-off as most FIIs are taking a flight out of EMs. The Nifty and Sensex have tanked 20% in the last 13 sessions and lost close to 25% since the peak of Feb 12. Of course, during this period, the domestic mutual funds have been net buyers but the FIIs tend to have a larger impact as they influence the stock prices and also the rupee value. The one big hope for the markets is that, like in 2008-09, the central banks across the world may take coordinated action to prevent a vertical sell-off. That would be one way to entice FIIs to come back and start buying.