The top 3 money managers increased stake in these firms in March; do you own any?

Sustained buying by domestic institutional investors (DII) continued to support equity markets in March when the benchmark BSE Sensex advanced 4.13 per cent during the month. Broader indices BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap jumped 3.22 per cent and 5.83 per cent, respectively, during the same period. 

Data shows that DIIs bought shares worth Rs 39,677 crore last month, while foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 41,123 crore. Meanwhile, equity mutual funds attracted a net sum of Rs 28,463 crore in March, making it the 13th consecutive monthly net inflow amid a volatile stock market environment.

Commenting on the outflows by overseas investors, SBI Funds Management said, “Technically, the worst of FPI outflows appears to be behind with some inflows starting to trickle through now. Even in the wake of one of the strongest FPI outflows in the first quarter of this calendar year, markets were well-behaved thanks to the strong counterforce of domestic buying. This is encouraging and points to a structural broadening of participation base for Indian equities.”

The country’s top mutual funds were seen lapping up select beaten down and underperforming stocks in March coupled with buying select financial stocks. Here’s what they bought and sold.

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SBI Funds Management

India’s largest money manager in terms of asset under management (AUM) bought 69,492 shares of One97 Communications (Paytm) in March. It was followed by Amara Raja Batteries (24,000 shares) and IndiaMart InterMesh (150 shares), data available with IDBI Capital Markets showed. 

It also increased its stake in other companies including NHPC, Gail, Max Healthcare, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Tata Steel and Kotak Mahindra Bank.  

On the other hand, it completely exited from Sahajanand Medical Technologies, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation, L&T Finance Holdings, Krsnaa Diagnostics, Dixon Technologies and Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers & Chemicals. SBI Mutual Fund also sold some shares in select Adani Group of companies. For instance, it offloaded 49,679 shares of Adani Green Energy and 26,589 shares of Adani Transmission.

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ICICI Mutual Fund

The Rs 4.75 lakh crore money manager bought shares like Zomato, One97 Communications, PB Fintech, Clean Science and Technology, Star Health and Allied Insurance, Devyani International, Medplus Health Services, Sapphire Foods, Borosil Renewables and Shree Renuka Sugars. ICICI Mutual Fund further added ONGC, IDFC First Bank, Bank of Baroda, Motherson Sumi Systems, The Indian Hotels Company, Wipro and State Bank of India last month. 

On the other hand, it completely exited players like Thomas Cook (India), Godawari Power and Ispat, Future Retail, Andhra Paper, Ujjivan Financial Services, Alembic, Schneider Electric Infrastructure and Sharda Cropchem, data available with Ace Mutual Fund showed. 

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HDFC Mutual Fund

The team of fund managers led by Prashant Jain at HDFC Mutual Fund entered companies like Zydus Wellness, Sudarshan Chemical Industries, Coromandel International, Intellect Design Arena and Astral Limited in March. It further lapped up shares of Ashok Leyland, HDFC Bank, HDFC, IDFC, Max Healthcare, Ambuja Cement, Steel Authority of India and Bank of Baroda.

On the flip side, it completely exited players like Hitachi Energy, Tatva Chintan Pharma Chem, Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers & Chemicals, Rossari Biotech, Endurance Technologies, S Chand and Company and L&T Finance Holdings. It also slashed its stake in players like NHPC, Union Bank of India, ITC, Vodafone Idea, NTPC, ONGC and Zomato. 

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