What the Big-3 Mutual Funds bought and sold in October 2022

16 Nov 2022 , 09:55 AM

For the month of October 2022, debt funds saw net outflows of a subdued Rs2,818 crore while the net inflows into equity funds were positive at Rs9,390 crore. Passive funds also saw strong inflows of Rs10,261 crore during the month. However, there are two other factors to note during the month. Firstly, the NFO action continued to remain robust at Rs5,439 crore in October 2022, driven by sectoral and index funds. In addition, monthly SIP flows for October 2022 touched record highs of Rs13,041 crore, despite strong global headwinds and stock market volatility. The big question is what did the big funds do with all this money that came in. We look at portfolio shifts of the 3 largest fund houses by equity fund AUM viz. SBI MF, ICICI Prudential MF and HDFC MF for October 2022.

Big-10 by Equity AUM and how much they control?

Since our focus here is on the stocks that mutual funds bought and sold in October 2022, we benchmark on equity AUM rather than overall AUM. The table below is the ranking of AMCs based on their equity AUM rankings as of end October 2022.

Top Fund Houses ranked By equity fund AUM	Equity AUM (Rs crore) As on 31-Oct-2022
SBI Mutual Fund	₹ 457,330
ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund	₹ 236,480
HDFC Mutual Fund	₹ 211,470
UTI Mutual Fund	₹ 164,910
Nippon India Mutual Fund	₹ 164,720
Axis Mutual Fund	₹ 144,010
Kotak Mutual Fund	₹ 139,040
Aditya Birla SL Mutual Fund	₹ 113,190
Mirae Asset Mutual Fund	₹ 101,340
DSP Mutual Fund	₹ 68,080

Data Source: AMFI

In October 2022, equity fund AUM of major fund houses surged as the NFO flows combined with SIP flows were robust. But, markets also got a lot of help from markets that have been a lot more bullish in the month of October 2022. In terms of equity AUM, ICICI Prudential AMC widened its gap over HDFC MF, while UTI and Nippon India Fund are moving up rapidly. The top ranks are dominated by the bancassurance names, accounting for half of the top-10 MF players. Mirae crossed Rs1 trillion equity AUM during October 2022.

The top-10 AMCs matter because they not only account for over 90% of industry-wide equity AUM, but also set the tone and the tempo for the stock market action by dealers and are closely tracked by traders. As a proxy, we focus on the buy and sell actions of the 3 biggest AMCs by equity AUM for October 2022. SBI MF, ICICI Pru MF and HDFC MF are the bellwether names that set the tone for markets.

Key equity portfolio shifts at SBI MF for October 2022

SBI Mutual Fund is the largest by overall AUM and equity AUM. In fact, the equity AUM of SBI MF at Rs4.57 trillion is more than the combined equity AUM of ICICI Prudential and HDFC MF. The top equity holdings of SBI MF are ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank and Infosys. Here are the major stocks that SBI MF bought and sold in October 2022.

October 2022 was a month where IPO action was visible after a break. With IPO action still building up, it was more about secondary market action. SBI Mutual Fund made fresh investment in just a number of stock during the month of October 2022. SBI MF bought Rs16.56 crore worth of Garden Reach Shipbuilders, Rs13.44 crore of RITES, Rs9.68 crore of Astral Ltd, Rs4.80 crore of Supreme Industries, Rs1.70 crore of Varun Beverages and Rs1.69 crore of Tata Elxsi. In addition, SBI MF also bought smaller quantities of KPIT Technologies and CG Power and Industrial Solutions. Apart from these fresh buys, SBI MF added to its existing positions in several stocks in October 2022. SBI MF added 8.32 lakh shares of Voltas, 4.75 lakh shares of Petronet LNG and 0.41 lakh shares of Shriram Transport Finance during October 2022.

Now for the exits. SBI MF fully exited one stock during October 2022. It sold its entire holdings worth Rs1.20 crore in Aarti Industries. Let us also look at stocks where SBI MF reduced existing positions. In October 2022, SBI MF sold 55.09 lakh shares of HUDCO, 15.14 lakh shares of Sadbhav Engineering and 0.51 lakh shares of Metropolis Healthcare.

Key equity portfolio shifts at ICICI Prudential MF for October 2022

ICICI Pru AMC has been the second largest fund by overall AUM and also by equity AUM for more than a year. Its equity AUM at Rs2.37 trillion makes it an influential player in the equity space. The top equity holdings of ICICI Prudential MF are ICICI Bank, Infosys and HDFC Bank. Here is a look at what ICICI Pru MF bought and sold in the month of October 2022.

ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund was an aggressive buyer in the IPO of Tracxn Technologies. In fact, the fund bought Rs54.21 crore worth of Tracxn Technologies in the IPO during the month of October. In addition, ICICI Pru MF also added to its existing positions in several stocks. It added 6.09 lakh shares of Indiabulls Housing Finance, 5.64 lakh shares of Sumitomo Chemicals India Ltd and 1.19 lakh shares of Shoppers Stop.

Let us look at the stocks that ICICI Pru MF exited in totality and where it reduced its stake. During October 2022, ICICI Prudential MF took total exit from Aarti Industries selling its entire stake worth Rs1.42 crore in the company, which was the sold exit by ICICI Prudential MF. There were also stocks where ICICI Prudential MF reduced its holdings in October 2022. It cut its stake in Power Finance Corporation by 40.79 lakh shares while it also reduced its stake in Metropolis Healthcare and BASF India Ltd by much smaller quantities.

Key equity portfolio shifts at HDFC MF for October 2022

HDFC Mutual Fund may have dropped to third position in equity AUM rankings, but at Rs2.12 trillion, its equity shifts still remain a key influencing factor. As of October 2022, the top equity holdings of HDFC MF were ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, SBI, Infosys and Reliance.

Fresh buying by HDFC MF was seen in the IPO of Electronics Mart India Ltd to the tune of Rs22.87 crore. In the secondary market, HDFC MF made fresh purchases of Granules India worth Rs5.89 crore and GNFC worth Rs5.62 crore. In addition, HDFC MF also bought fresh stocks in smaller quantities of Astral Ltd, Coromandel International and Polycab India Ltd. HDFC MF also used the volatility in select stocks to add more at lower levels to buffer its holdings. It added 2.11 lakh shares of Hindustan Copper, 2.05 lakh shares of Birlasoft Ltd and 1.87 lakh shares of L&T Finance Holdings Ltd.

Let us turn to stock exits. HDFC MF exited several stocks in totality during the month of October 2022. It sold its entire stake worth Rs30.30 crore in Bank of India, Rs13.65 crore in NMDC Ltd, Rs1.60 crore in Rain Industries, Rs0.58 crore in PVR Ltd and Rs0.25 crore in Deepak Nitrite. In addition, HDFC MF also cut its positions in NALCO by 7.35 lakh shares, Amara Raja Batteries by 0.28 lakh shares and a small quantity of Page Industries.

Here is the crux of the MF churn story in October 2022? Funds have bought selectively in stocks where correction has been steep but have also used the volatility to exit stocks where the headwinds are strong or momentum is low. Overall, it was an eventful month for MFs.