GMR Infra, Religare, BOI, NMDC: Midcap, smallcap shares that MFs bought & sold in April

Mutual funds lapped up shares of Star Health and Allied Insurance Company Ltd, Poonawalla Fincorp Ltd, Dixon Technologies and GMR Airports Infrastructure, among other midcap stocks, in April rally while they trimmed stakes to midcaps such as Bank of India (BOI), Patanjali Foods, NMDC, Laurus Labs in the month, data compiled by ICICIdirect suggested.

In the smallcap space, mutual funds, the institutional category bought PNB Housing Finance, Marksans Pharma, Mastek and RHI Magnesita India were stocks that mutual funds bought in the month. Route Mobile, Graphite India, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals were some smallcap stocks they sold in April.

The month saw the BSE Midcap index jumping 6 per cent while the BSE smallcap index rallying 7 per cent.

​"After a massive small and midcap (SMID) outperformance during 2020-21, the trajectory flattened out in 2022-23 – in line with historical mean reversion. Smallcap stocks have trailed Nifty by 20 per cent in the past 18 months. Now, most markers that we track (earnings upgrades vs. downgrades, valuations, rolling returns trends) suggest that the underperformance cycle is halfway through. In our view, the time to get more constructive on this space is slowly approaching," said Nuvama Institutional Equities in a note.

In the case of Star Health, MFs increased stakes to 55 lakhs in April from 41 lakhs in March. The holding value rose to Rs 324 crore crore from Rs 210 crore in March. In Poonawalla Fincorp, mutual funds' holding jumped to Rs 1,408 crore from Rs 1,016 crore, as they increased exposure to 4.36 crore from 3.47 crore.

Dixon Technologies (to Rs 2,458 crore from Rs 2,052 crore), GMR Airports Infrastructure (to Rs 368 crore from Rs 279 crore), BHEL (Rs 1,320 crore from Rs 1,011 crore), L&T Technologies (Rs 791 crore from Rs 615 crore) and Dr Lal Pathlabs (Rs 600 crore from Rs 501 crore) were among midcaps they bought in April.

Among stocks that mutual funds they timmed exposure to included Patanjali Foods (4 lakh shares from 8 lakh shares), IRFC (14.15 crore shares form 17.91 crore shares), Laurus Labs (2.52 crore shares from 3 crore shares), Max Healthcare India (16.49 crore shares from 18.33 crore shares), NMDC (15.86 crore shares from 17.38 crore shares) and Bank of India (Rs 6.25 crore shares from Rs 678 crore shares.

In the smallcap space, MF exposure in PNB Housing increased to Rs 428 crore from Rs 161 crore. RHI Magnesita India saw MF increasing exposure to Rs 1,673 crore from Rs 892 crore.

Marksans Pharma (Rs 51 crore to Rs 27 crore), Mastek (Rs 80 crore from Rs 46 crore), cE Info Systems (Rs 324 crore from Rs 189 crore), Eureka Forbes (Rs 118 crore from Rs 112 crore), CMS Info Systems (Rs 539 crore from Rs 426 crore) were other smallcaps seeing MF buying during the month.

On the flip side, Route Mobile saw MFs reducing exposure to Rs 100 crore from Rs 285 crore as they cut their holding in the stock to 8 lakh shares from 21 lakh shares. Kolte-Patil Developers, Graphite India, Time Technoplast, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Religare Enterprises, Ceat and Newgen Software Technologies were other smallcaps they trimmed stakes to.

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