NTPC Green Energy Ltd, Swiggy Ltd, Reliance Industries Ltd, Axis Bank Ltd, Trent Ltd and Varun Beverages Ltd (VBL) are a few stocks that mutual funds bought with both hands in November. Others included State Bank of India (SBI), Bharti Airtel Ltd, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd and Punjab National Bank (PNB) are some other stocks that MFs were gung ho on.
On the flip side, HDFC Bank, Power Grid, Voltas, Coforge and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) were some of the stocks they trimmed stakes to, data compiled by Nuvama Institutional Equities showed.
Mutual funds bought 20 crore addition Zomato shares worth Rs 5,600 crore in November. They owned 148.60 crore shares of the online food delivery platform in November against Rs 128.60 crore in October, thanks to the company's qualified institutional placement (QIP) during the month. Peer Swiggy, which debuted on stock exchanges on November 13, saw Rs 5,400 crore worth MF buying during the month. Reliance Industries Ltd saw MFs adding 3.9 crore shares to their portfolios worth Rs 5,000 crore. Private lenders Axis Bank and ICICI bank saw buying to the tune of Rs 4,900 crore and Rs 4,100 crore, respectively.
MFs held Rs 4,000 crore worth shares of debutant NTPC Green Energy at November end. This NTPC arm got listed on November 27. Bharti Airtel Ltd, saw Rs 3,200 crore worth addition MF buying in November; PSU bank SBI, Tata group firm Trent, private lender IndusInd Bank, and PepsiCo bottler Varun Beverages Ltd saw Rs 1,800-2,600 crore worth of addition MF buying for the month. Maruti Suzuki India, PNB, SBI Life, Bajaj Finserv, KEI Industries and Coal India were some of the stocks seeing over Rs 1,000 crore worth MF buying.
"Mutual fund houses actively churned positions, capitalising on key offerings. The highest deployment was in Zomato's QIP (Rs 5,600 crore), followed by IPOs of Swiggy (Rs 5,300 crore) and NTPC Green (Rs 4,000 crore). They also increased stakes in heavyweights like Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, and Axis Bank," Nuvama said.
HDFC Bank saw a solid Rs 11,000 crore worth MF selling in November. "Mutual funds utilised the MSCI-driven liquidity at November-end to partially exit inclusion names such as HDFC Bank (Rs 11,000 crore), Voltas(Rs 1,400 crore) , Oberoi Realty (Rs 1,100 crore) , and Alkem (Rs 800 crore)," it said. The month saw equity funds maintaining steady cash levels amid strong inflows from retail and HNI investors. As of November-end, mutual funds (pure equity) held Rs 1,48,200 crore in cash and equivalents, representing 4.83 per cent of assets—slightly lower than October’s 5 per cent, but aligned with historical averages.
Power Grid saw Rs 1,700 crore worth MF selling, Voltas (Rs 1,300 crore), Coforge (Rs 1,300 crore) and Oberoi Realty (Rs 1,000 crore).