Sell-off continues in Indian markets as foreign investors continue to take money out for five straight months

• Foreign investors continue to take money out of Indian markets for five straight months resulting in a bloodbath in the Indian equity markets.
• Expectations of the US Fed hiking interest rates six times in a year have influenced the shift of money from emerging markets like India.
• Besides, oil prices have risen sharply due to growing tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

Another week with growing tensions between Russia and Ukraine has spoiled the market mood across the world.

Along with geopolitical tensions, expectations of aggressive interest rate hike by the US Fed also triggered losses in Indian markets as foreign institutional investors (FII) continued to scoop out their money from here for five straight months. Morgan Stanley reportedly expects the US Fed to raise interest rates six times this year, a faster increase than previously predicted.

Month	Total sale by FIIs
October	₹12,436 crore
November	₹2,520 crore
December	₹29,702 crore
January	₹28,526 crore
February (till Feb 18)	₹18,856 crore

Major investment banks have been predicting a strong increase in interest rate hikes for 2022 on higher than expected inflation data that has ramped up pressure on the Fed.

Sensex and Nifty 50 slipped nearly 1% on February 21 on weak cues from Asian markets.

Top losers in Indian markets	% change as of 10 a.m.
UPL	-2.66%
Titan	-2.26%
Hindalco Industries	-1.95%
Divi's Laboratories	-1.92%
Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone	-1.79%
Tech Mahindra	-1.36%
BPCL	-1.41%
TCS	-1.59%
Mahindra & Mahindra	-1.32%
HDFC Life Insurance	-1.25%
Britannia Industries	-1.11%
Indian Oil Corp	-1.03%
Bajaj Finserv	-1.04%
SBI Life Insurance	-0.91%
Larsen & Tourbro	-0.85%
JSW Steel	-0.74%

Adding to the weak cues, oil prices have also been spiking because of growing tensions between Russia and Ukraine on chances of disruption in oil production.

Note that Russia is one of the world’s top producers of crude oil and western countries have threatened to impose new financial and economic sanctions on Russia if it invades Ukraine. So, any western sanctions would disrupt the oil supply from one of the largest producers of oil.

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