Mumbai: Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold equity worth Rs 58,710 crore (till October 11), but massive selling didn’t have a serious impact on the market, market experts said on Saturday. 

According to them, the entire FPI selling has been absorbed by the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) who are receiving sustained fund inflows. The major trend in foreign portfolio flows in October, so far, has been the sustained selling by FPIs. This trend of FII selling and DII buying is likely to be sustained in the near term, the analysts added.

FPIs have been investing in Chinese stocks which are cheap even now. However, “India has much better growth prospects now compared to China and, therefore, India deserves premium valuations”, said market watchers.

Sector-wise, it was a mixed bag for the Indian stock market, with buying seeing in pharma, metals and IT. Result season started with IT major TCS announcing in-line numbers.

Now all eyes will be on Infosys results next week and management commentary on revenue growth guidance. Other prominent companies that will announce their earnings include HDFC Life, Axis Bank, Wipro and LTIMindtree.

“Thus, heavyweights are likely to be in focus. After the sharp fall last week, Nifty consolidated and traded sideways amid relentless selling by FIIs and the absence of any major triggers. Overall we expect markets to consolidate at higher zones and take cues from global factors and result season,” said Siddhartha Khemka, Head-Research, Wealth Management, Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

On another note, India mourned the loss of business icon Ratan Tata, who passed away at the age of 86.

During his tenure, the Tata Group saw an extraordinary transformation, with profits surging 51 times and market capitalisation growing 33 times to over Rs 33,17,385 crore.