FII vs DII in April 2026: selling outran DII buying

The month in brief

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold a net ₹70,136 crore of Indian equities in April 2026. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought a net ₹51,064 crore.

For once, the domestic side did not cover the foreign side. FII selling exceeded DII buying by ₹19,072 crore, and the Nifty 50 still rose 7.46%, from 22,331.40 at the end of March to 23,997.55 on 30 April.

Every figure is NSE's provisional cash-market number in ₹ crore, the same series shown day by day on our FII and DII data page.

April in numbers

The month had 20 sessions.

• FIIs were net buyers on 4 of the 20, and only just: 10, 15, 16 and 17 April, between ₹382.4 and ₹683.2 crore each. The purchase on 10 April ended a run of 27 straight sessions of FII net selling that began on 26 February.
• Half the month's selling came in its first four sessions. On 1, 2, 6 and 7 April FIIs sold a net ₹35,121.6 crore. The other 16 sessions added ₹35,013.9 crore.
• The largest day was 2 April, at −₹9,931.1 crore. The month also ended heavily: −₹8,827.9 crore on 24 April and −₹8,047.9 crore on 30 April.
• DIIs were net sellers on 4 days, all in mid-month: 15, 16, 17 and 22 April, ₹9,766.5 crore in total.

Selling and rising at once

The month's most striking stretch is the middle. From 8 to 17 April, FIIs sold a net ₹4,102.5 crore and DIIs were net sellers too, by ₹751.9 crore. Over those same seven sessions the Nifty 50 rose 5.3%, from 23,123.65 to 24,353.55. It included the month's best day, +3.78% on 8 April.

So in April the index climbed while both institutional groups were, in total, on the selling side of the cash market. The flows describe what institutions did. They do not set the price on their own.

The Nifty's high for the month was 24,576.60 on 21 April. It closed the month 8.9% below its record close of 26,328.55, set on 2 January.

Where April ranks

These are the only four months in our record, which starts in September 2024, in which FII selling outweighed DII buying. April's gap is the widest of them by a distance.

On FII selling alone, April is the fourth-largest month we hold, behind March 2026 (₹1,22,540 crore), October 2024 and January 2025. It is the tenth month in a row of FII net selling; the last month of net buying was June 2025.

Year to date, from January to April 2026, FIIs have sold a net ₹2,40,752 crore and DIIs have bought ₹3,01,668 crore. The new financial year began on 1 April, and its first month is a net sale.

What this does not tell you

Flows do not explain prices. April is the clearest example in our record: the largest combined net sale by the two groups of any month, and a 7.46% rise in the index. Prices are set by everyone who trades, not by two groups' net totals.

DII is not one investor. Mutual funds, insurers, banks and pension funds are all in it, buying and selling for different reasons.

The figures are provisional and partial. NSE publishes them each evening for the cash market, rounded here to ₹0.1 crore a day. They leave out derivatives, debt and IPO allocations, so they will not match NSDL's monthly FPI totals.

A flow is not a forecast. Ten months of net selling describes what happened, not May.

Where to go from here

The FII and DII data page has every session. Our March flows post covers the record month before this one, and the April 2026 market recap covers the rebound across indices and funds. For a sense of how unusual April's best day was, see the Nifty's biggest one-day rise.