Beyond Nifty 500 | The smallcap, microcap favourites of active fund managers

Most fund managers pick stocks among the largest 500 companies. More so, in 2018, the capital market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India, standardised the definition of what constitutes a largecap, a midcap and a smallcap stock. Although fund managers limit their stock picking to the top 500 companies due to liquidity comfort, they occasionally venture beyond the boundary in their hunt for multibagger stocks. As per the ACEMF data, only 4% or Rs 69,298 crore of the active equity AUM has been invested stocks beyond the Nifty 500 league as of December 2022. These are mainly smallcap and microcap stocks and, mostly under researched. Fund managers apply various parameters to choose the stocks that have the potential to outperform over the long term. Here are most popular stocks beyond Nifty 500 among the actively managed equity oriented mutual fund schemes (541 schemes except arbitrage funds). Data as of December 2022. Source: ACEMF and Niftyindices.com.

Global Health
Latest M-CAP (Full): Rs 11,922 crore (Recently listed)
Number of active funds that held the stock: 40
Sample of funds that held the stock: SBI Healthcare Opp, Motilal Oswal Large & Midcap and PGIM India Small Cap Fund

Rolex Rings
Latest M-CAP (Full): Rs 4,738 crore
Number of active funds that held the stock: 38
Sample of funds that held the stock: ICICI Pru Smallcap, Invesco India Infrastructure and Kotak Infra & Eco Reform

Bikaji Foods International
Latest M-CAP (Full): Rs 10,623 crore (Recently listed)
Number of active funds that held the stock: 35
Sample of funds that held the stock: Quant Focused, Quant ESG Equity and Tata India Consumer

NMDC
Latest M-CAP (Full): Rs 36,471 crore
Number of active funds that held the stock: 34
Sample of funds that held the stock: ICICI Pru Commodities, DSP Natural Res & New Energy and Aditya Birla SL Dividend Yield

DCB Bank
Latest M-CAP (Full): Rs 3,848 crore
Number of active funds that held the stock: 33
Sample of funds that held the stock: Tata Small Cap, Taurus Banking & Fin Serv and LIC MF Banking & Financial Services

Craftsman Automation
Latest M-CAP (Full): Rs 6,943 crore
Number of active funds that held the stock: 31
Sample of funds that held the stock: Invesco India Smallcap, Aditya Birla SL Multi-Cap and LIC MF Tax Plan

Equitas Holdings
Latest M-CAP (Full): Rs 4,281 crore
Number of active funds that held the stock: 30
Sample of funds that held the stock: SBI Multi Asset Allocation, Franklin India Smaller Cos and Invesco India Financial Services

VRL Logistics
Latest M-CAP (Full): Rs 4,885 crore
Number of active funds that held the stock: 29
Sample of funds that held the stock: Quant Infrastructure, IDFC Transportation and Logistics and HSBC Infrastructure

KFin Technologies
Latest M-CAP (Full): Rs 5,663 crore (Recently listed)
Number of active funds that held the stock: 27
Sample of funds that held the stock: Motilal Oswal Equity Hybrid,
Sundaram Equity Savings and Nippon India Banking & Financial Services

NMDC Steel
Latest M-CAP (Full): NA (Yet to be listed)
Number of active funds that held the stock: 27
Sample of funds that held the stock: DSP Natural Res & New Energy, ICICI Pru Commodities and Aditya Birla SL Dividend Yield

BEML Land Assets
Latest M-CAP (Full): NA (Yet to be listed)
Number of active funds that held the stock: 26
Sample of funds that held the stock: IDBI Dividend Yield, Sundaram Focused and Aditya Birla SL Small Cap

Gateway Distriparks
Latest M-CAP (Full): Rs 3,317 crore
Number of active funds that held the stock: 26
Sample of funds that held the stock: ICICI Pru Smallcap, Franklin Build India and IDFC Transportation and Logistics

Kirloskar Oil Engines
Latest M-CAP (Full): Rs 4,544 crore
Number of active funds that held the stock: 26
Sample of funds that held the stock: Franklin India Opportunities, Franklin Build India and Mahindra Manulife Multi Cap Badhat Yojana

Archean Chemical Industries
Latest M-CAP (Full): Rs 7,667 crore (Recently listed)
Number of active funds that held the stock: 25
Sample of funds that held the stock: SBI Magnum Comma, Quant Small Cap and Motilal Oswal Multi Asset

Prudent Corporate Advisory Services
Latest M-CAP (Full): Rs 4,112 crore
Number of active funds that held the stock: 25
Sample of funds that held the stock: HSBC Tax Saver Equity, UTI Banking and Financial Services and Sundaram Small Cap

Aarti Pharmalabs
Latest M-CAP (Full): NA (Yet to be listed)
Number of active funds that held the stock: 24
Sample of funds that held the stock: Aditya Birla SL Midcap, IDBI Midcap and HDFC Mid-Cap Opportunities

Kaynes Technology India
Latest M-CAP (Full): Rs 4,561 crore (Recently listed)
Number of active funds that held the stock: 24
Sample of funds that held the stock: Nippon India Power & Infra,
WOC Mid Cap and Mahindra Manulife Mid Cap Unnati Yojana

Greenply Industries
Latest M-CAP (Full): Rs 1,741 crore
Number of active funds that held the stock: 23
Sample of funds that held the stock: Tata Small Cap, IDFC Multi Cap and Tata Young Citizen Fund

Harsha Engineers International
Latest M-CAP (Full): Rs 3,598 crore
Number of active funds that held the stock: 23
Sample of funds that held the stock: SBI Multi Asset Allocation,
WOC Mid Cap and Bank of India Small Cap