What the big 10 fund houses bought and sold in June 2023

15 Jul 2023 , 03:07 PM

One way to look at mutual fund portfolio churn is from the perspective of the stocks being churned. The other way is to look at it from the perspective of the funds that are churning these stocks. That is the focus here. Obviously, you cannot be looking at all the 43 AMCs for practical reasons. However, if one looks at the top 10 AMCs by equity fund AUM, it gives a very good picture since they would typically account for more than 90% of the overall AUM of all equity funds. Here, we look at the top 10 AMCs by equity AUM (dominated by bancassurance plays) and evaluate their portfolio shifts at 2 levels. At the first level, we look at the large cap stocks which the fund bought, sold or the stocks they were largely neutral on. Then, at the second level, we check the most preferred stocks of each fund house from an alpha perspective. These can be size agnostic, but are predominantly smaller companies.

SBI Mutual Fund: equity portfolio churn in June 2023

Let us first look at the shares SBI Mutual Fund bought in the month of June 2023, across all market cap classes but predominantly large caps. In terms of MOM percentage increase, SBI MF added to its positions in HDFC Ltd (like in April and May), ahead of the merger date. However, it also added ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries, Infosys Ltd, Bharti Airtel and Kotak Mahindra Bank. Surprisingly, SBI was neutral in a number of large stocks as we shall see in the next paragraph.

SBI Mutual Fund was neutral on stocks like HDFC Bank, ITC, SBI and Larsen & Toubro in June 2023. However, SBI MF did not cut its stakes in any of the large companies to a significant extent. The fund’s top 5 stock picks for June 2023 in terms of percentage accretion in holdings include KIMS, India Energy Exchange, Fusion Micro, Torrent Pharma and HDFC AMC.

ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund: equity portfolio churn in June 2023

Let us turn to the large cap shares that ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund bought in June 2023. In terms of MOM percentage increase, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund added to its positions substantially in ICICI Bank and HDFC Ltd. It did not add significantly to any of its other large cap positions in the month of June 2023.

ICICI Prudential MF remained neutral on Infosys, Reliance Industries and Sun Pharma in June 2023. There were several stocks in which ICICI Prudential MF cut positions. They cut positions very aggressively in NTPC Ltd and Axis Bank. In addition, the fund also pared positions in Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank and Larsen & Toubro during the month. The fund’s top 5 stock picks for June 2023 based on percentage increase in holdings were Sansera Engineering, CDSL, Thyrocare India, Timken India and Vijaya Diagnostics Centre.

HDFC Mutual Fund: equity portfolio churn in June 2023

Let us first look at the shares that HDFC Mutual Fund bought in June 2023, mainly  in the large cap space. In terms of MOM percentage increase, HDFC Mutual Fund added to its positions in HDFC Ltd and ICICI Bank. However, there were several stocks that HDFC Mutual Fund was neutral on for the month of June 2023.

HDFC Mutual Fund stayed neutral on HDFC Bank, SBI, ITC Ltd and Bharti Airtel in June 2023. However, HDFC Mutual Fund sharply cut positions in stocks like Infosys Ltd, Larsen & Toubro, Reliance Industries and Axis Bank. The fund’s top 5 stock picks for June 2023 based on percentage increase in holdings included TD Power, Star Health & Allied Insurance, Credit Access Grameen, Indus Towers and CDSL.

Nippon India Mutual Fund: equity portfolio churn in June 2023

Let us move on to the stocks Nippon India MF bought in June 2023, across large caps. In terms of MOM percentage increase, Nippon India MF added to positions substantially in HDFC Bank, NTPC Ltd, ONGC and Coal India Ltd. Nippon Fund has regularly been on the profit booking side and this month was a little more neutral. The fund was neutral on Reliance Industries in the month of June 2023.

During June 2023, Nippon India MF cut its positions across several stocks like Power Grid, Axis Bank and SBI. The fund’s top 5 stock picks for June 2023 based on percentage increase in holdings included La Opala RG, NIIT Learning Systems, Nazara Technologies, Shriram Finance and Sundaram Fasteners.

UTI Mutual Fund: equity portfolio churn in June 2023

Let us now turn to the oldest fund in India and check what are the shares that UTI Mutual Fund bought and sold in June 2023? In terms of MOM percentage increase, UTI MF added to its large cap positions in TCS, HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, Infosys Ltd and Kotak Mahindra Bank. UTI Bank was neutral in June 2023 on ICICI Bank, HDFC Ltd, Axis Bank, ITC Ltd and Bajaj Finance Ltd.

UTI Mutual Fund did not cut positions significantly in any of the large cap stocks and this comes as a welcome break after 2 months of consecutive selling by UTI MF in large caps. The fund’s top 5 stock picks for June 2023 based on the percentage increase in holdings included PFC, REC, Emami, Indus Towers and M&M Financial Services.

Aditya Birla Sun Life (ABSL) Mutual Fund: equity portfolio churn in June 2023

Let us now look at the shares that Aditya Birla Sun Life (ABSL) Mutual Fund bought in June 2023; predominantly in the large cap space. In terms of MOM percentage accretion, ABSL MF added to its positions substantially in HDFC Ltd and to a lesser extent in Infosys; almost a replica of its action in May 2023. However, ABSL Mutual Fund stayed neutral on Reliance Industries in June 2023; once again a repeat of the previous month.

The fund cut positions quite aggressively in several large caps including SBI, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, Larsen & Toubro, and Sun Pharma. In short, the fund remained predominantly on the sell side in June 2023. The fund’s top 5 stock picks for June 2023 based on percentage accretion in holdings included TD Power, Timken India, Star Health & Allied Insurance, Shriram Finance and Teamlease Services.

Axis Mutual Fund: equity portfolio churn in June 2023

Let us now turn to the shares that Axis Mutual Fund traded in June 2023, across market cap classes. In terms of MOM percentage increase, Axis Mutual Fund added to its positions in Nestle India and Cholamandalam Investments and Finance in June 2023. There was no stock that Axis MF was neutral on and barring the 2 stocks above, they sold off in 8 stocks.

The real story was once again on the sell side. Axis Mutual Fund was an aggressive seller in June 2023 across Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC Bank and Bajaj Finance. In addition, Axis Mutual Fund also sold into TCS, Avenue Supermarts, ICICI Bank, Info Edge India (Naukri) and Pidilite Industries Ltd. The fund’s top 5 stock picks for June 2023 based on the percentage accretion in holdings were Solar Industries, Timken India, Godrej Consumer Products, Credit Access Grameen and Page Industries.

Kotak Mutual Fund: equity portfolio churn in June 2023

Here is a quick look at stocks that Kotak Mutual Fund bought in June 2023, across market cap classes. In terms of MOM percentage increase, Kotak Mahindra MF was extremely aggressive on HDFC Ltd increasing its position by over 150% over May 2023. In addition, Kotak MF added a large chunk of Maruti Suzuki Ltd and a smaller quantity of Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL). Kotak Mutual Fund did not opt to remain neutral on any of the stocks in the month of June 2023.

There were a several stocks in which Kotak Mutual Fund cut positions aggressively including Larsen & Toubro, Axis Bank, Infosys Ltd, SBI, ICICI Bank and Reliance Industries Ltd. It also sold smaller quantities of Ultratech Cements Ltd. The fund’s top 5 stock picks for June 2023 based on percentage accretion in holdings included Bajaj Auto, Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL), Coal India, Pidilite Industries and Biocon Ltd.

Mirae Mutual Fund: equity portfolio churn in June 2023

Mirae has seen one of the fastest growth in equity AUM in last few years. Among the frontline stocks that Mirae Mutual Fund bought aggressively in June 2023 were HDFC Ltd, SBI and ICICI Bank. However, the fund also bought smaller quantities of Infosys Ltd and HCL Technologies Ltd. The fund opted to stay neutral on Larsen & Toubro.

During the month of June 2023, Mirae MF sold aggressively in Axis Bank, Bharti Airtel and HDFC Bank. The fund’s top 5 stock picks for June 2023 based on percentage accretion in holdings included TD Power, HDFC AMC, Timken India, LIC Housing and Cipla Ltd.

DSP Mutual Fund: equity portfolio churn in June 2023

Finally, let us look at what DSP Mutual Fund did in June 2023. The fund bought a large chunk of stocks like IPCA Laboratories and smaller chunks of SBI and Emami Ltd. DSP Mutual Fund opted to remain neutral in Supreme Industries in June 2023.

In terms of selling, DSP MF was a heavy seller in ICICI Bank and Axis Bank while it sold smaller quantities in HDFC Bank, Infosys Ltd, Bajaj Finance and Alkem Laboratories during June 2023. The fund’s top 5 stock picks for June 2023 based on percentage increase in holdings were IIFL Finance, Exide Industries, Shriram Finance, Indus Towers and ICICI Prudential Life Insurance.