Thanks to the relentless market rally, promoters and institutional investors such as private equity investors and venture capital have pulled out a whopping ₹2.34 lakh crore through bulk and block deals in 2025 even as retail investors pumped in ₹3.03 lakh crore through mutual fund SIP so far this year till November.
Interestingly, MFs were one of the top-20 buyers in the bulk and block deals this year with SBI MF buying shares worth ₹18,576 crore, while ICICI Pru MF and Kotak Mahindra MF acquired shares for ₹7,789 crore and ₹5,709 crore. Motilal Oswal MF and Nippon India MF also invested ₹5,545 crore and ₹3,805 crore, according to primedatabasegroup.com.
Pranav Haldea, Managing Director, PRIME Database Group, said mutual funds were active participants in the bulk and block deal segment as they have been receiving about ₹30,000-40,000 crore of inflows monthly.
Growth story
Currently, he said the confidence of retail investors on the India growth story remains intact, and they continue to invest aggressively in equities despite earning low returns over the past year or so. Going ahead, he said the steady inflow from retail investors needs to continue for both the primary and secondary market to sustain the current momentum.
“If equity returns remain low for next 1-2 years, it can potentially shake up retail investors confidence and spook the markets,” said Haldea.
Incidentally, retail investors’ holding in NSE-listed companies hit a 22-year high as they now own about 19 per cent of the entire NSE’s market cap at about ₹84 lakh crore.
Promoters have made most of the bullish market sentiments and have pulled out ₹1.36 lakh crore in this year. Similarly, in the same period, PEs and VCs have cashed out ₹77,637 crore. These investors exit through ‘offer for sale’ on stock exchanges was at ₹19,712 crore. In fact, the bulk and block deal during this year averaged at ₹47,940 crore, according to the primedatabasegroup.com.
Thomas Stephen, Head – preferred, Anand Rathi Share and Stock Brokers, said promoter dilution has risen sharply due to mix of valuation realisation and profit booking besides for meeting minimum public shareholding regulatory requirements, debt reduction and investment in other ventures.
Though this trend does not inherently reflect an overheating market it can accentuate volatility, he said.
Ravi Singh, Chief Research Officer, Master Capital Services, said many promoters have taken advantage of high equity prices to pay off debt at the individual or group level to decrease share pledges, or finance capital allocation needs in company ecosystem.
At the stock level, promoter selling does require deeper scrutiny, especially when it is accompanied by declining earnings visibility or stretched balance sheets, he said.