How was the FPI selling been in the month of April 2022?

For the first three weeks of April till 22nd April, foreign portfolio investors have withdrawn Rs.12,300 crore from Indian equity markets. This was after the Fed chair, Jerome Powell, hinted at 50 bps rate in May 2022 in the IMF Spring Meet 2022. In addition, Powell has also hinted that there would be another two rounds of 50 bps rate hike after May 2022. That would have pegged the interest rate level at about 2.75% to 3.00% by the end of 2022.

In addition, Powell also hinted at tightening the liquidity screws in the US and in world markets via bond unwinding at the rate of $95 billion effective from May 2022 itself and continuing till deemed necessary to maintain stability in the bond markets. This selling comes on top of 1.48 trillion pulled out by FPIs in H2 FY22. Incidentally, FPIs were net buyers in the first week of April to the tune of Rs.7,707 crore, so over Rs.20,000 crore was sold in the next 2 weeks of April.