Even as benchmark stock indices are in a correction mode, falling over 10 per cent from their September 2024 high levels, retail investors stayed positive on many of their favourite stocks in the quarter gone by, data on December quarter shareholding pattern suggest.
Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL), which had 58.34 lakh investors with less than Rs 2 lakh worth holding as of December 31, 2024, saw retail ownership going up by 108 basis points to 7.63 per cent in Q3 from 6.55 per cent in Q2. Vodafone Idea had 52.35 lakh retail investors in Q2.
JIO Financial Services Ltd (JFS) saw retail investors raising stake by 53 basis points to 17.09 per cent from 16.56 per cent. There were a total of 48.36 lakh retail investors in JFS at December end against 47.20 lakh at September quarter.
Coal India Ltd saw an addition of nearly two lakh retail investors sequentially. It had 21.58 lakh retail investors in Q3 against 19.35 lakh in Q2. Retail holding in this stock rose 0.54 percentage points to 3.91 per cent from 3.37 per cent.
In Adani Power Ltd, there was an addition of 1.41 lakh investors. Retail stake in this Adani group company rose 26 basis points to 5.1 per cent from 4.84 per cent.
Among companies with over 10 lakh retail investors, retail holding in Ujjivan Small Finance Bank Ltd (up 3.15 per cent), Easy Trip Planners Ltd (1.66 per cent), Exide Industries Ltd (up 0.74 per cent), Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (0.53 per cent) jumped 53-315 basis points. Punjab National Bank (PNB), Prakash Steelage Ltd, IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd, Indian Railway Catering And Tourism Corporation Ltd (IRCTC), Canara Bank, SJVN Ltd and Ircon International Ltd also saw a rise in retail ownership sequentially.
Meanwhile, shareholding pattern of retail favourites such as Tata Steel Ltd, YES Bank Ltd, Suzlon Energy, Indian Railway Finance Corporation Ltd, Tata Power Company Ltd, Reliance Power Ltd and NHPC Ltd are yet to be out.
ICICI Securities said stocks which derive bulk of their valuation from near-term earnings growth while anchoring value on the book value may be least sensitive to higher discount rates especially in cases where near-term outlook is getting upgrades.
"Expensive stocks with near-term earnings downgrade face a double whammy as long-term growth value gets truncated by rising discount rate while disappointment in short-term earnings (FY25-26E) does not provide any offsetting effect. A combination of short-term earnings downgrade and deteriorating long-term prospects could result in even serious valuation contraction," ICICI Securities said.