Sensex, Nifty Sees Worst July In 17 Years As FPI Outflows Continue

On the last trading day of the month, benchmark indices of the Indian stock exchanges halted their two day fall. While BSE's Sensex closed 83.88 points higher at 37,481.12, NSE's Nifty 50 was up 28.40 points at 11,113.80.

However, for the whole month, Sensex fell by 4.9 percent and Nifty 50 closed nearly 6 percent lower, clocking their worse work in a July since 2002.

July saw a reversal in the 5-month trend of overseas investors. Foreign portfolio investors (FPI) outflow surpassed the Rs 11,743-crore-mark, an extent only seen at four occasions since 2002. In fact, India's July outflow was the highest in the emerging markets followed by Brazil, indicating that investors may have moved out to other economies or other high yielding asset classes.

NSDL data showed that the highest ever outflow came in the month of October 2018 when foreign investors pulled out Rs 28,921 crore from India's equity markets.

The selling spree has been on since the announcement of super-rich taxes in Budget 2019, presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on 5 July.

Further, a slowdown in economy, especially in segments like auto and the not so reassuring quarterly results have also discouraged investors.