Foreign investors sold Indian equities in September, while Waterfield Advisors Managing Director and Head of Investment Strategy & Solutions Riddhiman Jain said opportunities abroad may be weakening India’s appeal to international capital.
National Securities Depository Ltd. (NSDL) recorded net foreign portfolio sales of ₹35,861 crore for the month. That total combines ₹14,116 crore in the first half of September and ₹21,745 crore in the second. The figures show the scale of the outflow but do not establish why investors sold.
In an Oct. 21 interview with Mint, Jain argued that developed markets offer stronger growth and returns on equity. He cited U.S. spending on artificial intelligence, changes at Japanese companies and Germany’s fiscal expansion. His explanation of the selling is an assessment; the interview did not provide a defined group of markets or comparable figures to establish his cross-market claim.
India’s latest official GDP figures show faster annual growth than a year earlier. The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation said real gross domestic product rose 7.8% in April-June, compared with 6.9% in the same quarter of 2025. Nominal GDP increased 10.3%, compared with 8.1% a year earlier. National output figures do not measure the corporate returns Jain discussed.
Jain also said higher oil costs could weigh more visibly on earnings in coming quarters. “Margins are the variable to track,” he told Mint. In his assessment, the effect on companies depends in part on whether they can pass higher costs to customers.
Separately, the ministry reported that annual consumer inflation rose to 5.54% in September from 4.83% in August. Food prices were 7.74% higher than a year earlier. The inflation figures do not establish how much, if any, of the increase was due to oil.
Jain expects uneven market returns and identified domestic consumption, hospitals, manufacturing and the power value chain as areas of interest. The ministry has scheduled the October inflation release for Nov. 12 and July-September GDP figures for Nov. 30.
