Mutual funds sold IT, and oil and gas stocks extensively in July. They also pared exposure to metals, and banks, but bought cement, power, media, and construction, and engineering stocks. Stocks were re-aligned in the FMCG, telecom, chemical, pharma, and auto space.

A study of the top ten mutual funds equity portfolios as on July 31, which are Reliance, ICICI Prudential, UTI, HDFC, Templeton, SBI, Birla SunLife, Kotak, TATA, and HSBC Mutual Fund reveals that funds bought huge chunks of FMCG major ITC, while continued to dilute their exposure to steel major Sail.

In terms of value Divi’s Labs, ICICI Bank, and Zee Entertainment were the top purchases by funds, while MICO, Infosys, and Siemens topped the sell list. Meanwhile, five of the nine equity IPOs that listed in July found place in the mutual fund portfolios with DLF, HDIL, and Vishal Retail being the favourites. 

Equity IPOs hot with Mutual Funds:

DLF, the top bought IPO (in terms of value) was purchased by six of the top 10 funds with HDFC MF picking up 15.2 lakh shares. Reliance, SBI, ICICI Pru, HSBC, and UTI MF too invested in the IPO. HDIL, the second favourite was bought by five funds with UTI MF being the top buyer with 6.7 lakh shares followed by Reliance, Kotak, Birla, and SBI MF.

Vishal Retail was purchased by HDFC, HSBC, ICICI Pru, and SBI MF with HDFC MF being the top buyer with over 4.7 lakh shares bought. Birla and SBI MF picked up over 41 lakh and 15.5 lakh shares of telecom service provider Spice Communications respectively.

ICICI Pru, Birla, and SBI MF together picked over 6.6 lakh shares of Allied Digital Services IPO. ICICI Pru MF was the top buyer with 5.7 lakh shares bought. Meanwhile, Roman Tarmat, Ankit Metal, Celestail Labs, and Suryachakra IPO failed to attract funds.

Stocks and Sectors that attracted Funds:

IDFC, the second top buy in terms of volume, was bought by six out of the top ten funds. SBI MF was the top buyer of the stock with over 36 lakh shares bought. Reliance, UTI, Birla, Kotak, and Tata MF also added to its investments in the stock, while Templeton MF pared exposure to it. Among other banking stocks, ICICI Bank, Allahabad Bank, BoB, LIC Housing, and Canara Bank were bought, while IDBI, Centurion Bank, Union Bank, Andhra Bank, Power Finance Corporation, Syndicate Bank, IFCI, Dena Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank were sold.

The top sell - Sail was sold by five out of the top ten funds. ICICI Pru MF was the top seller of the stock with over 109.5 lakh shares sold. Templeton, Kotak, HDFC, and UTI MF also slashed exposure to the stock, while SBI MF bought it. Among other metal stocks, Hindalco, and Adhunik Metaliks were sold, while Sterlite Industries, and Kirloskar Ferrous figured in its top 50 list of buys.

Auto ancillary stock major MICO was the top value sell. It was sold by six MFs. Templeton MF was the top seller with over 10.9 lakh shares sold. Among other auto stocks, Exide, Ashok Leyland, Ffairland Atlas, TVS Motor, and Amtek Auto were sold, while M&M, Escorts, Shanti Gears, and Maruti were among the top buys.

Funds pared exposure to IT and oil & gas stocks in a big way. Satyam, Infosys, Wipro, TCS, Polaris Software, Infotech Enterprises were sold, while Nucleus Software was bought. Oil and gas majors HPCL, ONGC, and BPCL figured among the top 50 stocks sold.

Among other sectors that attracted funds, power stocks NTPC, Jaiprakash Hydru Power, GIPCO, and Reliance Energy figured among the top 50 buys, while Neyveli Lignite was sold. Media stocks Zee Entertainment, Balaj Telefilms, Zee News, and TV Today were bought, while Dish TV, and NDTV were sold.

In the cement & construction pack, DLF, HDIL, Subhash Projects, Patel Engineering, Parsvnath Developers, and IVRCL were purchased, but HCC, India Cements, and Jaiprakash Associates was sold. Engineering stocks Crompton Greaves, Sadbhav Engineering, HEG, and Grindwell Norton saw buying, while Punj Lloyd was sold.

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