What the Big-3 funds bought and sold in January 2022

21 Feb 2022 , 11:48 AM

For Jan-22, equity funds inflows almost halved sequentially to Rs14,880cr while monthly SIPs touched a record high of Rs11,517cr. While these flows were spread across large cap, mid-cap and small cap stocks, what is illustrative is the buying and selling of the biggest funds in the month. Obviously, big AUMs drive equity trends in the market. Here is a quick look at the top-10 funds in India on assets under management (AUM).

How the AMCs stacked up on equity AUM in Jan-22

While consolidated AUM is a good measure, it fails to capture retail participation and equity appetite. One option is to compare top AMCs on equity AUM.

Data Source: AMFI

Some of the AMCs that recently ramped up equity AUMs substantially are Nippon MF, UTI MF and Mirae MF. In fact, Nippon, UTI MF and Axis are gradually closing their gap with HDFC MF in terms of equity AUM. Why are these top-10 AMCs relevant? They account for over 90% of equity AUM; and this includes the equity component of hybrid funds as well as the underlying equity portfolio of passive funds. What we focus on is the buy and sell actions of the 3 biggest funds by AUM viz. SBI MF, ICICI Pru MF and HDFC MF for Jan-22. Here is a portfolio preference analysis of the Big-3.

What SBI MF bought and sold in Jan-22

SBI Mutual Fund is not only the largest AMC by overall AUM but also the leader in equity AUM. SBI MF’s equity AUM is larger than the total AUM of most other funds. The equity AUM of SBI MF at Rs3.704 trillion is 80% higher than ICICI Prudential MF, the next in rank. The top equity holdings of SBI MF are HDFC Bank, Reliance, ICICI Bank and Infosys. Here are the major shares SBI MF bought and sold in Jan-22.

Unlike in previous months, IPOs did not figure anywhere in the significant buys of SBI MF in Jan-22. The reason; there were hardly any IPOs. In Jan-22 SBI Mutual Fund invested Rs636cr in National Highways Infra Trust, Rs38cr in Avanti Feeds, Rs22cr in Prestige Estates, Rs12cr in Tata Communication and Rs6.3cr in NBCC India. In addition, SBI MF also bought fresh stakes in Rain Industries, Chambal Fertilizers, Vodafone and GNFC.

During the month of Jan-22, SBI MF enhanced exposure to certain stocks in its portfolio. The AMC added 20.15 lakh shares of Aditya Birla Capital, 3.07 lakh shares of Firstsource Solutions and 2.49 lakh shares of Trend Ltd in Jan-22.

There were several stocks SBI MF exited completely. For example, it sold its full holdings worth Rs14.87cr in Blue Dart, Rs17.49cr worth in Gateway Distriparks, Rs.20.51cr in Indiamart Intermesh and Rs28.13cr holdings in Techno Electric & Engineering. In addition, SBI MF also reduced its stake by 2.83 lakh shares in Dixon Technologies, 0.65 lakh shares of Voltas and 0.48 lakh shares of Laurus Labs.

What ICICI Prudential MF bought and sold in Jan-22

ICICI Pru AMC has already clearly overtaken HDFC MF to emerge second in the AUM sweepstakes. Its equity AUM at Rs2.080 trillion makes this fund house a significant and influential player in the equity space. Among the top equity holdings of ICICI Pru MF are ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Infosys. Here is what ICICI Pru MF bought and sold in Jan-22.

There were very few fresh buys for ICICI Pru MF in Jan-22. ICICI Pru MF invested Rs5.37cr in Kennametal India and much smaller quantities in Brightcom Group and Saregama India. Obviously, with the IPO scene quiet, there were not fresh IPOs in the ICICI MF buy list.

During the month of Jan-22, ICICI Pru MF also added to its positions in select stocks. The fund added 4.13 lakh shares of Aditya Birla Capital, 0.29 lakh shares of GNFC and 0.15 lakh shares of ABB India Ltd.

Regarding exits, ICICI Pru MF made a total exit from some recent IPO listings. ICICI Pru MF completely exited by selling Rs290cr of Gateway Distriparks, Rs29.7cr of PB Fintech, Rs26cr of CE Infosystems, Rs18.33cr of Tega Industries, Rs15.6cr of Data Patterns and Rs12.82cr of Latent View Analytics. ICICI Pru MF also reduced holdings in Avanti Feeds by 1.03 lakh shares, Coromandel International by 1.29 lakh shares and 0.35 lakh shares of Thermax.

What HDFC MF bought and sold in Jan-22

HDFC Mutual Fund, despite dropping to third place, remains an influential voice. The equity AUM of HDFC MF at Rs1.88 trillion makes the fund a dominant and influential player. Among the top equity holdings of HDFC MF are SBI, ICICI Bank, Infosys, HDFC Bank and Reliance Industries. Here is what HDFC MF bought and sold in Jan-22.

HDFC MF was the only large fund house to still gorge on IPOs. HDFC Mutual Fund invested Rs73.9cr in the IPO of AGS Transact Technologies, Rs7.1cr in TVS Motors, Rs5.3cr in India Energy Exchange, Rs2.8cr in HG Infra, Rs2.1cr in Hindustan Copper and Rs1.5cr in Rain Industries. Apart from the above fresh buys, the fund also bought GNFC.

During Jan-22, HDFC MF also added to its positions in select stocks. It added 26.64 lakh shares of IDFC First Bank, 14.04 lakh shares of SAIL and 0.46 lakh shares of Indiamart Intermesh during Jan-22.

Regarding total exits, ICICI Pru MF made a total exit from a number of stocks. It sold 66.5 lakh shares of Gateway Distriparks, 31.7 lakh shares of CE Info Systems, 20.8 lakh shares of Prince Pipes, 19.35 lakh shares of Paras Defence, 19.1 lakh shares of NALCO, 14.8 lakh shares of Page Industries and 6.1 lakh shares of Laurus Labs. HDFC MF also pared positions in a handful of stocks. It reduced holdings in SAIL by 14.04 lakh shares, Voltas by 11.78 lakh shares and Whirlpool of India by 2.67 lakh shares.

Contrary to previous months, Jan-22 saw sharp selling in recent IPO listings by most mutual funds. It was a shift to good old proven economics at work.

Data Source: AMFI