Learn·Market structure
Who are FIIs and DIIs, and why do their flows matter?
FIIs (foreign institutional investors, now formally FPIs) are overseas funds registered with SEBI to invest in Indian markets. DIIs are domestic institutions — mutual funds, insurers, banks and pension funds. Exchanges publish their net buying and selling daily, making FII/DII flows one of the most-watched gauges of institutional sentiment.
Who is in each bucket
The FII/FPI bucket holds sovereign wealth funds, global asset managers, hedge funds and overseas pension funds, all registered under SEBI’s FPI regulations. The DII bucket is dominated by Indian mutual funds and insurance companies (LIC above all), with banks, pension funds and AIFs alongside. The two groups often act as counterweights: sustained foreign selling has repeatedly been absorbed by domestic SIP-driven buying.
Ownership by both groups is visible company by company in the quarterly shareholding pattern — the FII and DII percentage of each company, every quarter, back to 2001 on Solomo’s company pages.
How the daily numbers are reported
Every trading day the exchanges publish provisional cash-market figures: gross purchases, gross sales and the net for FII and DII separately. “Net buyers of ₹1,200 crore” means purchases exceeded sales by that amount across the cash segment that day. Final custodian-level FII/FPI data follows from the depositories, and derivatives positions are reported separately.
Single days are noisy — a large block deal can swing one day’s number without any change in stance. Monthly and financial-year aggregates carry more signal, which is why Solomo’s FII/DII dashboard rolls daily provisional data into month‑to‑date and multi-year views alongside the daily series.
Live example: FII vs DII net flows by financial year
Cash-segment provisional data summed by financial year; latest session 2026-09-07.
| Financial year | FII net (₹ Cr) | DII net (₹ Cr) |
|---|---|---|
| FY 2026-27 | −1,85,784 | +3,32,035 |
| FY 2025-26 | −3,32,686 | +8,49,758 |
| FY 2024-25 | −3,99,940 | +6,08,035 |
| FY 2023-24 | −14,394 | +2,06,717 |
| FY 2022-23 | −1,98,639 | +2,55,236 |
Daily series, monthly roll-ups and derivatives data: FII/DII dashboard.
Frequently asked questions
Do FII outflows always mean the market falls?
No. FII selling coinciding with equal or larger DII buying has accompanied flat and rising markets. Flows are one input among many — the size of the counterflow, and what is driving each side, matter as much as the headline number.
Why do provisional and final FII figures differ?
Provisional numbers come from exchange trading data the same evening; final numbers come from custodians after settlement and include activity the provisional cut misses. The differences are usually small but real — dated analysis uses the final series.
What is the difference between FII flows and FII holding?
Flows are the daily net buying or selling across the market. Holding is the percentage of a specific company FIIs own, reported quarterly in its shareholding pattern. A company can see its FII holding rise in a quarter when FIIs were net sellers of the market overall.
Explore the data
FII/DII flows dashboard — daily, monthly, yearlyHow to read a shareholding patternDiscover companies by ownership shiftsEducational content derived from public exchange filings and regulations. Not investment advice.