Weekly Musings – FPI flows for week ended October 17, 2025

20 Oct 2025 , 09:36 AM

FPI BUYING PICKED UP MOMENTUM LAST WEEK

The week to October 17, 2025 saw net FPI equity inflows of $969 Million. More importantly, the FPIs were net buyers in 4 out of 5 trading sessions this week. The net inflow was despite concerns over tariffs, H1-B visas, and continued shutdown in the US. FPI buying during the week was evident in sectors like banking, autos, and FMCG; essentially the strong India-centric investment stories. FOMC meet could hold the key to FPI flows.

Dollar index stayed strong at 98.43 levels, despite the continued shutdown. The RBI defended the rupee aggressively by selling $5 billion, leading to the rupee hardening to ₹88.02/$; even touching a high of ₹87.61/$. Brent Crude fell further to $61.29/bbl on US shutdown concerns and enhanced OPEC supply. The big macro data point was precious metals; with spot gold rallying to $4,379/oz and spot silver to $54.49/oz, before correcting.

MACRO FPI FLOW PICTURE UP TO OCTOBER 17, 2025

The table captures monthly FPI flows into equity and debt for last 4 calendar years.

Calendar Month	FPI Flows Secondary	FPI Flows Primary	FPI Flows Equity	FPI Flows Debt/Hybrid	Overall FPI Flows
Calendar 2022 (₹ Crore)	(146,048.38)	24,608.94	(121,439.44)	(11,375.78)	(132,815.22)
Calendar 2023 (₹ Crore)	1,27,759.75	43,347.14	1,71,106.89	65,954.38	2,37,061.27
Calendar 2024 (₹ Crore)	(1,21,210.21)	1,21,637.15	426.94	1,65,342.98	1,65,769.92
Jan-2025 (₹ Crore)	(81,903.72)	3,876.78	(78,026.94)	815.91	(77,211.03)
Feb-2025 (₹ Crore)	(41,748.97)	7,174.62	(34,574.35)	10,273.72	(24,300.63)
Mar-2025 (₹ Crore)	(6,027.77)	2,055.16	(3,972.61)	36,953.97	32,981.36
Apr-2025 (₹ Crore)	3,243.03	980.28	4,223.31	(24,413.24)	(20,189.93)
May-2025 (₹ Crore)	18,082.82	1,777.41	19,860.23	11,089.48)	30,949.71
Jun-2025 (₹ Crore)	8,466.77	6,123.51	14,590.28	(22,153.36)	(7,563.08)
Jul-2025 (₹ Crore)	(31,988.32)	14,247.74	(17,740.58)	12,202.89	(5,537.69)
Aug-2025 (₹ Crore)	(39,063.85)	4,070.42	(34,993.43)	14,488.43	(20,505.00)
Sep-2025 (₹ Crore)	(27,163.33)	3,278.61	(23,884.72)	11,345.99	(12,538.73)
Oct-2025 (₹ Crore) #	(4,114.16)	10,593.72	6,479.56	14,970.44	21,450.00
Total for 2025 (₹ Crore)	(2,02,217.50)	54,178.25	(1,48,039.25)	65,574.23	(82,465.02)
For 2025 ($ Million)	(23,126.57)	6,234.76	(16,891.81)	7,416.10	(9,475.71)
# – Recent Data is up to October 17, 2025

Data Source: NSDL (Net Outflows in brackets)

Overall, FPI flows for 2025 are still negative at $(9,476) Million. This comprised of $(16,892) Million net selling in equities, offset by $7,416 Million net buying in debt. Within equities, secondary market selling was to the tune of $(23,127) Million; offset by IPO buying of $6,235 Million, thanks to big-ticket IPOs flows. FPIs actively participated in the anchor allocations and the QIB portion of mega Indian IPOs; channelling secondary market gains.

FPI SENTIMENTS – THE WEEK THAT WAS

For the week to October 17, 2025, FPIs were net buyers in equities worth $969 Million. Here are key market drivers.

• India consumer inflation fell to a 99-month low of 1.54%, while the WPI inflation also tapered to 0.13% in September 2025. In both the cases, the major driver of lower inflation was the food basket. Core and manufacturing inflation stayed elevated.
• The minutes of the RBI MPC published this week underlined that all six members were open to more rate cuts in India, due to low inflation. However, they also sounded caution due to the volatile global macros and questioned rate cut effectiveness.
• India merchandise trade deficit spiked to a 11-month high of $32.15 Billion, after a sharp spike in imports in September 2025. A bigger concern is that even the services surplus was lower in September, putting further pressure on the current account deficit (CAD).
• In what could be the biggest investment commitment into artificial intelligence in India; Google and TCS are investing top dollars. While Goole will invest $15 Billion to set up a GW-scale data centre in Vizag, TCS will invest $7 Billion in a network of data centres.
• Government additional liability on SGB redemption at the latest redemption price announced is getting close to ₹1 Trillion. However, this is just the capital loss, not counting the interest payable or the capital gains tax lost on redemptions.

Let us turn to granular FPI flows in last 4 weeks.

DAILY FPI EQUITY FLOWS FOR LAST 4 ROLLING WEEKS

Here is the last 4 rolling weeks data on FPI flows in rupee terms and in dollar terms.

Date	FPI Flow (₹ Crore)	Cumulative flows	FPI Flow($ Million)	Cumulative flows
22-Sep-25	1,128.39	1,128.39	127.78	127.78
23-Sep-25	-1,971.70	-843.31	-223.69	-95.91
24-Sep-25	-2,794.09	-3,637.40	-314.85	-410.76
25-Sep-25	-1,867.85	-5,505.25	-210.44	-621.20
26-Sep-25	-4,100.60	-9,605.85	-462.46	-1,083.66
29-Sep-25	-4,979.28	-14,585.13	-561.21	-1,644.87
30-Sep-25	-1,354.79	-15,939.92	-152.65	-1,797.52
01-Oct-25	-4,026.06	-19,965.98	-453.42	-2,250.94
02-Oct-25	0.00	-19,965.98	0.00	-2,250.94
03-Oct-25	183.66	-19,782.32	20.71	-2,230.23
06-Oct-25	-1,584.48	-21,366.80	-178.48	-2,408.71
07-Oct-25	-1,471.74	-22,838.54	-165.76	-2,574.47
08-Oct-25	1,663.65	-21,174.89	187.49	-2,386.98
09-Oct-25	737.82	-20,437.07	83.09	-2,303.89
10-Oct-25	2,406.54	-18,030.53	271.04	-2,032.85
13-Oct-25	2,743.33	-15,287.20	309.31	-1,723.54
14-Oct-25	3,555.35	-11,731.85	400.46	-1,323.08
15-Oct-25	-576.82	-12,308.67	-64.97	-1,388.05
16-Oct-25	695.98	-11,612.69	78.83	-1,309.22
17-Oct-25	2,152.33	-9,460.36	244.85	-1,064.37

Data Source: NSDL

• In previous 7 weeks, FPIs saw net inflows of $197 Million; net outflows of $(1,147) Million, $(1,084) Million; net inflows of $322 Million, $168 Million; net outflows of $(1,394) Million, and $(1,478) Million. The week to October 17, 2025, saw FPI net buying of $969 Million in equities, led by IPO flows. October marked the fourth consecutive month of aggressive FPI buying in debt.
• In last 4 rolling weeks, total net FPI outflows from equities were ₹ (9,460) Crore or $(1,064) Million. In calendar 2025, FPIs were net sellers in equities in 6 out of 9 months; while they were net buyers in debt in 7 out of 9 months.

For FPIs, US data points are still elusive due to the ongoing shutdown; with the US inflation data expected next week. On the India data front, FPIs will focus on the core sector growth for September and the progress on the Q2FY26 corporate results!