Fund managers' bets: Top 10 large, mid and small-cap stocks that MFs bought in October

Sensex might have plunged about 5 percent in October but mutual fund flow remained resilient. Fund managers used the dips to buy into quality large, mid and small-cap stocks.

MF industry assets grew to Rs 22.2 lakh crore on the back of improved inflows into equity-oriented and liquid funds. The equity-oriented funds make up 45 percent, debt funds make up 31 percent and liquid funds make up 20 percent of total assets, ICICIdirect said in a report.

The industry body sees AUM growing almost four-fold to Rs 94 lakh crore by 2025 on the back of increased distribution reach and strength.

Debt and liquid funds predominantly have institutional investors while equity-oriented funds predominantly have individual investors. HDFC AMC retains the top spot in terms of AUMs while previous leader ICICI Pru keeps the second place.

Despite the significant volatility in October, equity inflows continued to witness a steady uptrend and was at an eight-month high in October, said a report.

Specifically, top 10 large-cap stocks which fund managers bought in October include names like Coal India, New India Assurance, BPCL, Adani Ports, Axis Bank, Bharti Airtel, Nestle India, Grasim Industries, RIL, and Asian Paints witnessed highest buying during October 2018, said the ICICIdirect report.

In midcaps, stocks like Motilal Oswal Financial Services, Avanti Feeds, ACC, HEG, NBCC, Reliance Capital, SJVN, KRBL, Future Retail, and LIC Housing Finance witnessed highest buying during October 2018.

In small caps, stocks like Techno Electric, Gujarat Fluoro, Spice Jet, Ujjivan Financial Services, Indian Energy Exchange, Navkar Corporation, V-Mart, Mastek, and Lux Industries found favour among investors in October.