What the Big-3 Mutual Funds bought and sold in Mar-22

For Mar-22, equity funds inflows bounced back to Rs28,600 crore compared to Rs19,700 crore in Feb-22. Monthly SIP flows in Mar-22 touched a record Rs12,328 crore while for FY22, the SIP flows stood at an imposing Rs124,566 crore. One factor of interest is the equity buying and selling by the biggest AMCs in the business. That is because, big AUMs drive equity trends in the market; but first a look at how AMCs stacked up in terms of AUM.

How much equity AUM the Big Boys managed in Mar-22

Consolidated AUM fails to capture retail participation and equity appetite. A better way is to compare and rank the top AMCs based on Equity AUM. This includes equity holdings across equity funds, hybrids and index funds.

Data Source: AMFI

One clear trend is that the rupee value of equity AUM has risen across the board. That is partially due to sharp flows and partially due to a strong market performance in Mar-22. Some of the AMCs that recently ramped up equity AUMs substantially include Nippon MF, UTI MF, Axis MF and Mirae MF. In fact, AMCs like Nippon, UTI and Axis are progressively narrowing equity AUM gap with HDFC MF.

These top-10 AMCs account for over 90% of overall industry-wide equity AUM. For our purpose, 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 Mar-22. In a way, it is these 3 AMCs that set the tone for the equity markets. Here is a portfolio preference analysis of the Big-3.

Stocks that SBI MF bought and sold in Mar-22

SBI Mutual Fund, the largest AMC by overall AUM, is also the undisputed leader in equity AUM. SBI MF’s equity AUM is larger than the total AUM of most other funds. In fact, the equity AUM of SBI MF at Rs3.924 trillion is 84% higher than second ranked ICICI Prudential MF. The top equity holdings of SBI MF are Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, Infosys and ICICI Bank. Here are major shares SBI MF bought and sold in Mar-22.

IPOs did not figure in the top fresh additions of SBI MF, which is not surprising considering there was hardly any action. Let us first look at the fresh buys of SBI MF in Mar-22. SBI Mutual Fund invested Rs235.64crore in Motherson Sumi Wiring, Rs183.14crore in Gateway Distriparks, Rs3.67crore in One97 Communications (Paytm) and Rs1.29crore in Amara Raja Batteries. In addition, SBI MF bought fresh stake in ecommerce player, IndiaMart Intermesh.

During the month of Mar-22, SBI MF enhanced exposure to certain stocks in its portfolio. SBI MF added 12.83 lakh shares of Indiabulls Housing Finance, 14.40 lakh shares of Avanti Feeds and 0.15 lakh shares of Laurus Labs in Mar-22.

There were several stocks SBI MF exited completely. It sold its full holdings worth Rs20.25cr in IRCTC Ltd, Rs13.01cr stake in L&T Finance Holdings and Rs.12.36cr in Krsnaa Diagnostics. SBI MF also exited Dixon Technologies and GNFC. Apart from the total exits, SBI MF reduced its stake by 110.82 lakh shares in Yes Bank, 6.64 lakh shares of Max Financial Services and 1.58 lakh shares of IPCA Laboratories.

Stocks that ICICI Prudential MF bought and sold in Mar-22

ICICI Pru AMC had pipped HDFC MF in the AUM game some time back to emerge as the second largest by AUM. Its equity AUM at Rs2.13 trillion makes this fund house 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 Mar-22.

There were several interesting fresh buys for ICICI Pru MF in Mar-22. ICICI Pru MF invested Rs335.50crore in Motherson Sumi Wiring, Rs282.53crore in Gateway Distriparks, Rs14.96crore in Zomato Ltd and Rs6.18crore in One97 Communications (Paytm). ICICI Pru MF also bought small fresh quantities in PB Fintech, Clean Science, Star Health, Devyani International, Medplus  Health, Sapphire Foods, Borosil Renewables and Renuka Sugars.

During the month of Mar-22, ICICI Pru MF also added to its positions in select stocks. The fund added small quantities of shares in Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS), Shyam Metalics and Tata Investment Corporation.

Regarding exits, ICICI Pru MF made a total exit from several stocks. It exited by selling Rs11.48crore of Godavari Power, Rs3.41crore of Thomas Cook and Rs3.34crore worth of shares in Andhra Paper. It also exited smaller quantities in stocks like Future Retail, Ujjivan Financials, Bharat Rasayan, Valiant Organics, Sharda Cropchem, Alembic and NFL. ICICI Pru MF also reduced holdings in L&T Finance by 51.45 lakh shares, Chemplast Sanmar by 10.17 lakh shares and 0.82 lakh shares of GNFC Ltd.

Stocks that HDFC MF bought and sold in Mar-22

HDFC Mutual Fund remains an influential voice in stock markets with equity AUM at Rs1.90 trillion. HDFC MF’s top equity holdings are ICICI Bank, SBI, HDFC Bank, Infosys and Reliance Industries. Here is what HDFC MF bought and sold in Mar-22.

HDFC Mutual Fund made fresh buys of Rs63.77crore in Gateway Distriparks, Rs22.52crore in Zydus Wellness, Rs19.8crore in Motherson Sumi Wiring, Rs5.20crore in Sudarshan Chemicals, Rs2.50crore in Coromandel International and Rs2.13crore in Intellect Design Arena. In addition, HDFC MF was also a fresh buyer in Astral Ltd. During Mar-22, HDFC MF added 32.61 lakh shares of SAIL, 0.63 lakh shares of Oberoi Realty and 0.20 lakh shares of Laurus Labs.

HDFC MF made a total exit from a number of stocks. It sold its stake worth Rs16.95crore in L&T Finance, Rs9.55crore in S Chand & Co., Rs9.39crore in Endurance Technologies, Rs5.22crore in Rossari Biotech and Rs1.15crore in GNFC. It also exited smaller holdings in Tatva Chintan and Hitachi Energy. HDFC MF also reduced positions in CG Power by 8.64 lakh shares, Clean Science by 1.42 lakh shares and Godrej Properties by 1.33 lakh shares.

Clearly, it does look like the big funds have used the market volatility to churn their portfolios in Mar-22.