TCS, Adani group stocks, YES Bank, Reliance: Here’s what top 3 money managers bought in February

By admin On Mar 17, 2023

The country’s top three mutual funds including SBI Mutual Fund, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund and HDFC Mutual Fund were seen lapping up beaten-down and underperforming stocks in February when the benchmark equity index BSE Sensex slipped nearly 1 per cent and NSE Nifty lost 2 per cent.

The domestic equity market continued to fall for the third straight month in February due to the hawkish policy stance by US Fed and a couple of domestic factors like continued rate hikes by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and heavy selling in Adani group stocks post Hindenburg report. Here’s what the top 3 mutual fund houses in India bought and sold last month.

SBI Mutual Fund

With a total value of holding of around Rs 4.50 lakh crore, the country’s biggest money manager SBI Mutual Fund bought over 85 lakh shares of IT player Tech Mahindra last month. It also bought additional 58,751 shares of IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) during the month, according to Prime Mutual Funds Database. Shares of Tech Mahindra and TCS have declined 25 per cent and 13 per cent in the last one year, while the 30-share Sensex gained 1.44 per cent during the month. In the financial space, SBI Mutual Fund also increased its stake in Kotak Mahindra Bank, Equitas Small Finance Bank, City Union Bank, LIC Housing Finance, Sundaram Finance, Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank and Punjab National Bank, among others. Among the other major stocks, it also bought more than 31 lakh shares of InterGlobe Aviation, 15 lakh shares of Divi’s Laboratories and 90,379 shares of Page Industries. The money manager was also seen lapping up shares of beaten-down Adani Total Gas (6,635 shares), Adani Transmission (6,700 shares), Adani Green Energy (8,062 shares) and Adani Wilmar (211 shares) in February. SBI Mutual Fund further increased its stake in energy-to-telecom behemoth Reliance Industries (1,08,907 shares) amid the ongoing underperformance in the stock.

On the other hand, the mutual fund cut some stake in State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Ambuja Cements, HCL Technologies and Adani Ports, among others.

ICICI Mutual Fund

The country’s second-largest fund manager also bought over 52 lakh shares of Reliance Industries. Shares of the company have cracked more than 20 per cent from their 52-week high levels of 2855, scaled on April 29, 2022. ICICI Mutual Fund further upped its stake in PVR (34 lakh shares), SBI Life Insurance (46 lahk), Bharti Airtel (53 lakh), HDFC (14.5 lakh), InterGlobe Aviation (15.8 lakh), Maruti Suzuki India (2.96 lakh), Sun Pharma (25.92 lakh), State Bank of India (47 lakh), Tech Mahindra (23 lakh), Hero MotoCorp (8.85 lakh) and Equitas Small Finance Bank (3.72 crore), among others. ICICI Mutual Fund also bought additional shares of Adani Total Gas (11,474 shares), Adani Transmission (11,632 shares), Adani Green Energy (14,332 shares), Adani Wilmar (818 shares). The fund house also seen increasing its stake in YES Bank (60,234 shares), Tata Motors (21 lakh shares) and Tata Steel (85.45 shares). On the other hand, the fund house cut some stake in Tata Consultancy Services, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, ITC, Inox Leisure, TVS Motors, Infosys and UltraTech Cement, among others.

HDFC Mutual Fund

Consumer discretionary, telecommunication, financial services and healthcare sectors stood as the favourite sector of HDFC Mutual Fund in February. Data showed that the country’s third-largest money manager bought over 17 lakh shares of PVR, over 9 lakh shares of Titan and nearly 52 lakh shares of Tata Motors last month. It also purchased additional 27.74 lakh shares of Bharti Airtel and 12.54 lakh shares of HDFC Bank. ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Cipla, Mahindra & Mahindra, HDFC, Prestige Estate Projects, State Bank of India, Hindustan Aeronautics and Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals stood among other major buys of HDFC Mutual Fund. The fund house also bought additional shares of Adani Enterprises (8536 shares), Adani Total Gas (975 shares), Adani Transmission (1058 shares) and Adani Green Energy (1252 shares). HDFC Mutual Fund further increased its stake in Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Coforge, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Gail (India), HCL Technologies, Narayana Hrudayalaya, Zee Entertainment, Bajaj Auto, Tech Mahindra, IndusInd Bank, Equitas Small Finance Bank and YES Bank. On the other hand, it completely exited Inox Leisure and further offloaded some of its stake in Reliance Industries, ITC, Tata Power, Adani Ports, Tata Chemicals and Larsen & Toubro, among others.

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