Sebi smoothes FPI path as valuations drive outflows

The stock market regulator plans to sharply cut the registration timeline for foreign portfolio investors (FPIs), chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey said, at a time when many foreign investors are moving money to markets such as Taiwan and South Korea.

- Apoorva Ajith & Shayan Ghosh

“The idea is that we should take five days. Currently, we are taking about 30 days. But people's impression is that it takes a few months,” Pandey said in an interview. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has also been holding webinars to tutor FPIs on entering Indian markets to make their onboarding smoother and faster. About 2,000 FPIs attended such webinars conducted by Sebi officers, Pandey said.

The regulator wants to make the Indian capital market more attractive for foreign investors as factors such as high valuations and weak earnings growth deter investor interest. Net FPIs from the equities market in 2025 were at ₹1.66 trillion, against inflows of ₹427 crore the year before, according to data from the National Securities Depository Ltd. Foreign investors have pulled out a net ₹35,962 crore from Indian equities so far in 2026.