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

17 Oct 2022 , 06:59 AM

Passive funds also saw strong flows during the month. However, there were two other factors of note during the month. Firstly, the NFO action was back at Rs8,374 crore in September 2022, driven by sectoral and flexi-cap funds. In addition, monthly SIP flows for September 2022 touched record highs of Rs12,976 crore, despite strong global headwinds. 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 September 2022.

Here is how much equity funds the Big-10 manage

Since our focus here is on the stocks that mutual funds bought and sold in September 2022, we benchmark on equity AUM rather than overall AUM.

Top Fund Houses ranked By equity fund AUM	Equity AUM (Rs crore) As on 30-Sep-2022
SBI Mutual Fund	₹ 433,470
ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund	₹ 224,750
HDFC Mutual Fund	₹ 200,270
UTI Mutual Fund	₹ 157,560
Nippon India Mutual Fund	₹ 157,110
Axis Mutual Fund	₹ 142,150
Kotak Mutual Fund	₹ 133,190
Aditya Birla SL Mutual Fund	₹ 109,220
Mirae Asset Mutual Fund	₹ 97,980
DSP Mutual Fund	₹ 66,530

Data Source: AMFI

In September 2022, equity fund AUM of most major funds surged as the NFO flows combined with SIP flows, despite the indices not showing too much of positive traction in the month. 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.

The top-10 AMCs matter because they not only account for over 90% of industry-wide equity AUM, but also set the tone for the stock market action by dealers. As a proxy, we focus on the buy and sell actions of the 3 biggest AMCs by equity AUM for September 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 September 2022

SBI Mutual Fund is the largest by overall AUM and equity AUM. In fact, the equity AUM of SBI MF at Rs4.33 trillion is more than the equity AUM of ICICI Pru and HDFC MF combined. 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 September 2022.

September 2022 was a month wherein IPOs did make a comeback, but were few and far between. With IPO action tepid, it was more about secondary market action. SBI Mutual Fund made fresh investment in just 4 stock during the month of September 2022. SBI MF bought Rs34.06 crore worth of Sundaram Finance, Rs30.81 crore of Teamlease Finance and Rs2.82 crore of Honeywell Automation. In addition, SBI also invested Rs28.02 crore in the IPO of Harsha Engineering International Ltd. Apart from these fresh buys, SBI MF added to its existing positions in several stocks in September 2022. SBI MF added 3.84 lakh shares of IRCTC, 3.06 lakh shares of Birlasoft Ltd and 1.50 lakh shares of Adani Total Gas during the month of September 2022.

SBI MF fully exited several stocks during the month. It sold entire holdings worth Rs7.84 crore in Sagar Cement, Rs1.70 crore stake in India Pesticides and its holdings worth Rs0.73 crore in Firstsource Solutions. Let us also look at stocks where SBI MF reduced existing positions. In September 2022, SBI MF sold 7.12 lakh shares of Indiabulls Housing Finance, 1.80 lakh shares of Shriram Transport Finance Ltd and 0.72 lakh shares of Petronet LNG. Clearly, SBI MF has used the volatility to undertake a strategic churn of its portfolio.

Key equity portfolio shifts at ICICI Prudential MF for September 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 Rs2.25 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 September 2022.

ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund was an aggressive fresh buyer in several stocks in September 2022, after lying low for several months. The fund used the volatility in the market to make some very focused purchases of stocks in the month. It made fresh purchases of Rs28.23 crore  of Butterfly Gandhimathi Appliances, Rs24.73 crore in Harsha Engineers IPO, Rs1.71 crore in Shoppers Stop and Rs1.67 crore in Adani Wilmar.

Apart from these stocks, ICICI Pru MF also bought smaller quantities of stocks like Tejas Networks, Raymond, Greenpanel Industries, TCI, Bharat Rasayan, Aether Industries, Sharda Cropchem and JBM Auto Ltd. There were also stocks where ICICI Pru MF added to its existing positions. It added 20.57 lakh shares of Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS), 7.68 lakh shares of Policybazaar and 4.94 lakh shares of Suprajit Engineering.

Let us look at the stocks that ICICI Pru MF exited in totality and where it reduced its stake. During September 2022, ICICI Prudential MF took total exit from Paradeep Phosphates selling its entire stake worth Rs54.20 crore and selling its entire Rs14.83 crore stake in Tamil Nadu Newsprint. In addition, ICICI Pru MF also fully exited smaller positions in Indo Count, Sequent Scientific, Glenmark Lifesciences, Venky, Solara Active Pharma and Tata Steel Long products. There were also stocks where ICICI Prudential MF reduced its holdings in September 2022. It cut its stake in Westlife Development by 1.02 lakh shares and Mastek by 0.44 lakh shares; apart from a smaller reduction in Eris Lifesciences.

Key equity portfolio shifts at HDFC MF for September 2022

HDFC Mutual Fund may have dropped to third position in equity AUM rankings, but at Rs2.00 trillion, its equity shifts still remain a key influencing factor. As of September 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 Harsha Engineers IPO (Rs27.94 crore), Adani Total Gas (Rs13.79 crore), NALCO (Rs5.61 crore), India Cements (Rs2.34 crore), Rain Industries (Rs1.60 crore), Birlasoft (Rs1.18 crore) and Abbott India (Rs0.92 crore). It also bought small fresh quantities of Hindustan Copper and PVR Ltd. HDFC MF also used the volatility in select stocks to add more at lower levels to buffer its holdings. It added 56.43 lakh shares of Tech Mahindra, 0.97 lakh shares of Berger Paints and 0.04 lakh shares of Page Industries.

Let us turn to stock exits. HDFC MF exited two stocks in totality during the month of September 2022. It sold its entire stake worth Rs1.03cr in HG Infra and Rs0.26 crore in GE Power India. In addition, HDFC MF also cut its positions in Indian Oil Corporation by 156.99 lakh shares, Jubilant Foodworks by 2.50 lakh shares and Zydus Lifesciences by 1.31 lakh shares.

Here is the crux of the MF churn story in September 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.