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

23 Jun 2022 , 02:14 PM

For the month of May 2022, the data released by AMFI shows there was a sharp increase in equity fund inflows as well as SIP inflows. However, debt funds continued to remain under pressure. Among equity funds, all categories saw net inflows in May 2022. The big question then is; with so much of flows, what did these mutual funds do in equity markets? We will look at the 3 largest funds by equity AUM viz SBI MF, ICICI Prudential MF and HDFC MF. But, first let us start with a picture of the equity fund AUM of the top-10 funds in India.

Equity AUM managed by the big league MFs in May 2022

Consolidated AUM has its limitations as it fails to capture equity appetite. A better way is to compare top AMCs on Equity AUM. Here is a consolidated view of equity holdings across equity funds, hybrids and index funds.

Top Fund Houses ranked By equity fund AUM	Equity AUM (Rs crore) As on 31-May-2022
SBI Mutual Fund	₹392,610
ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund	₹216,590
HDFC Mutual Fund	₹186,770
Nippon India Mutual Fund	₹146,030
UTI Mutual Fund	₹143,550
Axis Mutual Fund	₹131,650
Kotak Mutual Fund	₹123,530
Aditya Birla SL Mutual Fund	₹106,490
Mirae Asset Mutual Fund	₹90,090
DSP Mutual Fund	₹62,840

Data Source: AMFI

In May 2022, equity fund AUM of most major funds ended lower compared to April 2022, despite positive flows. This fall was due to depletion in value of stocks during May 2022.The net impact; AUMs across major funds are actually lower in May 2022. However, the ranks of funds on equity fund AUMs has not changed between April 2022 and May 2022.

The top-10 AMCs account for over 90% of overall industry-wide equity AUM. Here we focus on the buy and sell actions of the 3 biggest AMCsby equity AUM viz. SBI MF, ICICI Pru MF and HDFC MF for May 2022.These 3 AMCs set the tone for equity markets, so it is worthwhile to study their buying and selling patterns and how they churned their portfolios.

What SBI MF bought and sold in May 2022

SBI Mutual Fund, the largest AMC by overall AUM, is the leader in equity AUM too. In fact, the equity AUM of SBI MF at Rs3.926 trillion is 81.27% higher than second ranked ICICI Prudential MF. The top equity holdings of SBI MF are Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Infosys. Here are the major stocks that SBI MF bought and sold in May 2022.

Needless to say, fresh buys of SBI MF during the month of May 2022 was dominated by the IPOs. SBI Mutual Fund invested Rs1,817crore in Delhivery IPO, Rs1,184 crore in the IPO of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), Rs203 crore in the IPO of Paradeep Phosphates and Rs49.72 crore in the IPO of Hyderabad based Rainbow Children’s Medicare. In addition, SBI MF also made a fresh addition in Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers (GNFC) worth Rs9.69 crore from the secondary markets during May 2022.

During May 2022, SBI MFenhanced exposure to select stocks in its portfolio. SBI MF added 6.53 lakh shares of Apollo Tyres, 2.85 lakh shares of Indiabulls Housing Finance and 14.28 lakh shares of L&T Finance Holdings.

There were several stocks SBI MF exited totally. It sold entire holdings worth Rs88.13 crore in Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC, Rs15.89 crorestake inRolex Rings, Rs14.49 crore stake in Great Eastern Shipping, Rs7.03 crore in Balkrishna Industries and Rs1.50 crore in Vijaya Diagnostics. SBI MF also exited its small residual stake in Sobha Ltd. In addition, SBI MF reduced its stake by6.11lakh shares in Petronet LNG, 13.00 lakh shares of Chennai Petroleum and 0.71 lakh shares of Persistent Systems in May 2022.

Stocks thatICICI Prudential MF bought and sold in May 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 Rs2.17 trillion makes it an influential player in the equity space. Among the top equity holdings of ICICI Pru MF are ICICI Bank, Infosys and HDFC Bank. Here is what ICICI Pru MF bought and sold in May 2022.

The fresh buys were largely dominated by IPO investments. In May 2022, ICICI Pru MF invested Rs828.98 crore in LIC IPO, Rs166.41 crore in Delhivery IPO, Rs77.07 crore in Paradeep Phosphates IPO, Rs42.67 crore in Ethos IPO and Rs33.78 crore in Campus Activewear IPO. The AMC also bought a small quantity of Triveni Engineering shares. ICICI Pru MF also added 0.68 lakh shares of Avanti Feeds, 7.15 lakh shares of Dixon Technologies and 17.05 lakh shares of HPCL.

During the month of May 2022, ICICI Prudential MF took total exit from Wonderla Holidays, selling its entire stake worth Rs6.79 crore. However, it did cut its positions in select stocks. ICICI Prudential MF cut its positions in Motilal Oswal by 2.55 lakh shares, 1.46 lakh shares in CAMS and a small quantity in Jindal Stainless Hissar in May 2022.

Stocks thatHDFC MF bought and sold in May 2022

HDFC Mutual Fundmay have dropped to third positions but with equity AUM of Rs1.87 trillion,it remains an influential voice and a force to reckon. As of the close of May 2022, the top equity holdings of HDFC MF were ICICI Bank, SBI, HDFC Bank, Infosys and Reliance Industries. Here is what the fund bought and sold in May 2022.

Fresh buying was once again strong in IPOs. HDFC Mutual Fund made fresh buys of Rs619.80 crore in LIC, Rs166.41 crore in Delhivery, Rs48.10 crore in Paradeep Phosphates, Rs39.53 crore in Campus Activewear, Rs24.14 crore in Prudent Corporate Advisory. Apart from the IPOs, HFDC also did fresh buying of Rs15.32 crore in Gulf Oil Lubricants, Rs6.77 crore in Indiabulls Housing Finance, Rs6.14 crore in Astral Ltd and Rs5.95 crore in L&T Finance Holdings Ltd. It also bought smaller quantities of Polycab India and Abbott India.In addition, HDFC MF added 0.16 lakh shares of Dalmia Bharat, 8.68 lakh shares of Vedanta Ltd and 10.47 lakh shares of Escorts Kubota.

HDFC MF fully exited a number of stocks. It sold its stake worth Rs7.21cr in Deepak Nitrite, Rs4.53 crore in Hindustan Copper, Rs2.67 crore in Intellect Design Arena, Rs17.96 crore in SJVN and Rs2.46 crore in Vodafone Idea.In addition, HDFC MF reduced positions in NALCO by 31.62 lakh shares, PVR Ltdby 0.86 lakh shares and Birlasoftalso by 0.86 lakh shares.

The big funds have used the market volatility not only to invest aggressively in the IPOs in May 2022, but also to churn their portfolios. The month of June 2022 has been a virtual drought for IPOs till now, so the action could be more in the secondary markets. But we need to await that data.