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 Chief Investment Strategist of Geojit Financial Services V K Vijayakumar on Saturday said that the FPI investment trend of selling in equity and buying in debt witnessed in January is also continuing in the month of February.

He said that through February 9, FPIs had sold equity for Rs 3,074 crores and bought debt worth Rs 15, 093 crores.

“This takes the total equity selling in 2024, so far, to Rs 28,818 crores and debt buying to Rs 34,930 crores,” he said.

He said that the main trigger for this divergent trend in equity and debt is the high valuation in the Indian equity market and the rising bond yields in the U.S.

“In the last fortnight of January, FPIs were massive sellers in financials with a sell figure of Rs 31,261 crores. This explains the underperformance of Bank Nifty in general and some leading private sector banks in particular,” he said.

He said that for long-term investors, there is value in banking stocks now.

“FPIs were buyers in IT and telecom, which explains the resilience of the leading players in these segments,” he said.

Vijayakumar said that a reversal of the FPI selling in equity will happen when the US bond yields drift down and stay there for long.