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

17 Mar 2022 , 10:33 AM

For Feb-22, equity funds inflows bounced back to Rs19,705cr compared to Rs14,880cr in Jan-22. Monthly SIP flows in Feb-22 at Rs11,438cr was slightly lower compared to Rs11,517cr in Jan-22. But that is absolutely understandable considering the kind of volatility in the market. One interesting factor that is very illustrative of the institutional investor mood is the equity buying and selling by the biggest AMCs in the business. Big AUMs drive equity trends in the market; but first how AMCs stacked up in terms of AUM.

How much equity funds the big AMCs managed in Feb-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

Across the board the rupee value of equity AUM has fallen, but that is more due to the sharp correction in the benchmark indices during the month of Feb-22. Some of the AMCs that recently ramped up equity AUMs substantially are Nippon MF, UTI MF, Axis MF and Mirae MF. In fact, the 3 AMCs are progressively narrowing equity AUM gap with HDFC MF.

These top-10 AMCs account for over 90% of overall industry-wide equity AUM. Here equity AUM includes the equity component of hybrid funds and also the passive funds. From this point, we will focus on the buy and sell actions of the 3 biggest AMCs 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 Feb-22

SBI Mutual Fund is the largest AMC by overall AUM but, more importantly, it is the undisputed 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 Rs3.658 trillion is 80% higher than ICICI Prudential MF, which ranks second. The top equity holdings of SBI MF are HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank and Infosys. Here are major shares SBI MF bought and sold in Feb-22.

Unlike in previous months, IPOs did not figure since Vedant Fashions and Adani Wilmar were the only 2 significant IPOs in Feb-22. Let us first look at the fresh buys of SBI MF in Feb-22. SBI Mutual Fund invested Rs795.23cr in Vedant Fashions, Rs183.65cr in Equitas Small Finance Bank, Rs10.72cr in Metropolis Healthcare, Rs7.53cr in Indiabulls Housing Finance and Rs2.55cr in Intellect Design Arena. In addition, SBI MF also bought fresh stakes in Syngene International, part of the Biocon group.

During the month of Feb-22, SBI MF enhanced exposure to certain stocks in its portfolio. The AMC added 426.30 lakh shares of Vodafone Idea, 27.48 lakh shares of Zee Entertainment and 9.90 lakh shares of GMR Infrastructure in Feb-22.

There were several stocks SBI MF exited completely. For example, it sold its full holdings worth Rs67.47cr in Escorts Ltd, Rs11.46cr worth stake in Nazara Technologies, Rs.4.38cr in CE Info Systems (mapmyindia.com) and Rs3.1.cr holdings in Polycab Ltd. In addition, SBI MF also reduced its stake by 20.12 lakh shares in FSN E-Commerce (Nykaa), 2.91 lakh shares of Matrmony.com Ltd and 2.29 lakh shares of Indigo Paints.

What ICICI Prudential MF bought and sold in Feb-22

ICICI Pru AMC had overtaken HDFC MF quite some time back to emerge as the second in the AUM sweepstakes. Its equity AUM at Rs2.060 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, Infosys and Bharti Airtel. Here is what ICICI Pru MF bought and sold in Feb-22.

There were very few fresh buys for ICICI Pru MF in Feb-22. ICICI Pru MF invested Rs44.47cr in Vedant Fashions, Rs3.04cr in Techno Electric & Engineer and a much smaller amount in GMR Infrastructure. Vedant was the IPO where ICICI Pru MF was a major buyer.

During the month of Jan-22, ICICI Pru MF also added to its positions in select stocks. The fund added 102.19 lakh shares of Equitas Small Finance Bank, 41.37 lakh shares of Aditya Birla Capital and 7.64 lakh shares of Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd.

Regarding exits, ICICI Pru MF made a total exit from some previous IPO listings. ICICI Pru MF completely exited by selling Rs27.51cr of Metro Brands and also sold Rs.16.04cr worth of shares in Sansera Engineering. ICICI Pru MF also reduced holdings in KPIT Technologies by 5.74 lakh shares, Escorts Ltd by 5.12 lakh shares and 3.51 lakh shares of Affle Ltd.

What HDFC MF bought and sold in Feb-22

HDFC Mutual Fund, despite dropping to 3rd place, remains an influential voice in the stock markets. The equity AUM of HDFC MF at Rs1.80 trillion makes the fund a dominant and influential player. Among the top equity holdings of HDFC MF are ICICI Bank, SBI, Infosys, Reliance Industries and HDFC Bank. Here is what HDFC MF bought and sold in Feb-22.

While SBI MF and ICICI Pru MF were active in buying the IPO of Vedant Fashions, HDFC MF was more aggressive on Adani Wilmar. HDFC Mutual Fund invested Rs142.7cr in the IPO of Adani Wilmar, Rs29.08cr in NALCO, Rs12.7cr in Bayer Cropsciences, Rs10.38cr in Vodafone Idea, Rs6.26cr in Manappuram Finance and Rs2.44cr in Birlasoft. Apart from the above fresh buys, the fund also bought Amara Raja, Page Industries, Dalmia Bharat and Laurus Labs.

During Feb-22, HDFC MF also added to its positions in select stocks. It added 36.79 lakh shares of Ashok Leyland, 13.76 lakh shares of India Energy Exchange and 0.16 lakh shares of GNFC Ltd during Feb-22.

Regarding total exits, HDFC MF made a total exit from three stocks. It sold 32.24 lakh shares of Abbott India, 8.51 lakh shares of MRF Ltd, 1.07 lakh shares of Astral Ltd. HDFC MF also pared positions in a handful of stocks. It reduced holdings in Indiabulls Housing Finance by 5.27 lakh shares, Escorts Ltd by 4.47 lakh shares and Sun TV by 2.85 lakh shares.

During the month of Feb-22, there were only 2 significant IPOs viz. Vedant Fashions and Adani Wilmar. Hence IPO action among mutual funds was limited. However, the big funds have use the market volatility to churn their portfolios in Feb-22.