ICICI Pru Infra buys SAIL, RIL, Voltas; sells NTPC

ICICI Pru Infrastructure Fund has made huge buying and selling in the month of March. The scheme increased its weightage to oil and telecom stocks while reduced in power, banking, engineering, cement and auto sectors. (View - What is ICICI Pru Infrastructure Fund buying / selling?)

The weightage to oil and gas sector has increased by 6.4% as the scheme has made fresh buying of 13.73 lakh shares of Reliance, which has corrected nearly 35% from its 52-week high and 0.75 lakh shares of Aban Offshore. RIL has hit a low of Rs 2120 in the month of March and is the top holding counter in the scheme. However, it has sold 12.4 lakh shares of Cairn India and 3.5 lakh shares of HPCL, and exited ONGC.

Mixed trend has also seen in telecom space, as it bought 7.33 lakh shares of Bharti Airtel, which is the second top holding counter while offloaded 4.14 lakh shares of Reliance Communications and 1.35 lakh shares of Tata Communications.

In the metal segment, it has offloaded 7.85 lakh shares of Usha Martin, 5.32 lakh shares of Welspun Gujarat and 2.22 lakh shares of Sterlite Industries. However, it has purchased over 28 lakh shares of India’s largest PSU metal company, SAIL and 1.87 lakh shares of Jindal Steel.

Selling was also seen in utilities sector, as it sold 40.46 lakh shares of India’s largest power generation company, NTPC, 1.34 lakh shares of Gujarat Industries Power and 1.14 lakh shares of Tata Power, largest power generation company in the private sector.

In the banking space, the scheme has offloaded 2.13 lakh shares of HDFC. However, it has bought 3.23 lakh shares of India’s second largest bank, ICICI Bank, and made fresh entry into Axis Bank and Federal Bank by adding 2.43 lakh shares and 1.32 lakh shares, respectively.

Mixed trend was seen in cement and construction sector as it freshly bought 16.7 lakh shares of Nagarjuna Construction and increased investment in Birla Corporation by adding 1.9 lakh shares while sold over 7.99 lakh shares of JP Associates and 1.98 lakh shares of Patel Engineering.

There was a mixed trend seen in the engineering sector as well. ICICI Pru Infrastructure has introduced 15.25 lakh shares of Voltas, 0.89 lakh shares of Siemens and 0.67 lakh shares of L&T. However, it has cut exposure to Cummins and Crompton Greaves by 3.82 lakh shares and 1.52 lakh shares, respectively. It has also sold 1.06 lakh shares of ABG Infralogistics, 1.29 lakh shares of Techno Electric, 1.26 lakh shares of Kirloskar Oil and 0.85 lakh shares of BHEL.

The scheme has reduced investment in the auto space as it exited 5.27 lakh shares of Mahindra and Mahindra.

In the cable segment, it has bought 1.41 lakh shares of Finolex Cables. On the other hand, in the services space, the scheme has offloaded 5.82 lakh shares of Indian Hotels. In gas transmission sector, it has sold 11.47 lakh shares of Gail India.

Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel and Jindal Steel were the top stocks held by the scheme in March. Metals (12.48%), Engineering (12.11%) and Oil & Gas (9.90%) were the top invested sectors in the scheme's portfolio. (Check out - Top stocks held by ICICI Pru Infrastructure Fund).

The equity exposure of the scheme has dropped from 72.43% to 68.58%. The total assets managed by the scheme were of Rs 4,090 crore as on March 31, 2008.
 
Over the last one-year, ICICI Pru Infrastructure Fund has yielded 49.6% returns as against 23.85% yielded by its benchmark S&P CNX Nifty as on April 4, 2008.

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