Foreign institutional investors sold nearly ₹1 lakh crore worth of shares in ten major Indian companies during the first quarter of FY27. Despite this heavy selling, 8 of these stocks managed to rise, showing strong resilience backed by solid earnings and investor confidence. Bajaj Finance led the gains with a sharp 25% rise. Eternal gained 16%, Maruti Suzuki climbed 15%, HDFC Bank added 9%, Sun Pharma rose 6%, State Bank of India advanced 5%, Bharti Airtel increased 4% and Mahindra and Mahindra also gained 4%.
Reliance Industries and Infosys were the only two that fell. Reliance slipped 4% while Infosys dropped 20%. Reliance and HDFC Bank together accounted for nearly half of the total foreign selling, with Reliance seeing ₹26,011 crore worth of shares sold and HDFC Bank ₹22,461 crore.
Overall foreign shareholding in NSE listed firms fell to 15.88% from 16.12% in March. However, domestic investors remained strong as nearly 73% of companies reported results that met or beat expectations. This boosted confidence and helped offset foreign outflows.
In July, foreign investors turned net buyers again after months of selling, suggesting that the worst of the outflows may be over and stability could return to Indian markets.