RIL, Infosys shares offloaded: Mutual Funds sell index heavyweights, go IPO shopping in January

Mutual Fund houses were seen trimming positions in some of the biggest names on Dalal Street in January. Blue-chip firms such as Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries, IT giant Infosys, and telecom major Bharti Airtel were some of the most sold companies by fund houses, according to data compiled by domestic brokerage and research firm Edelweiss. Additionally, the largest addition by the mutual fund industry was the newly listed Indian Railway Railway Finance Corp (IRFC), making it the hottest stock among fund managers for the first month of the calendar year.

MFs trim positions in index heavyweights

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) was the most sold stock by mutual funds in the month of January. Collective sell value of RIL shares was Rs 2,081 crore. Of this, Kotak Mutual Fund, Motilal Oswal, and Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund accounted for nearly half. Other fund houses that sold stocks of Mukesh Ambani’s firm were IDFC MF, SBI Mutual Fund, JM Mutual Fund, and L&T MF.

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Infosys was the second most sold stock after RIL. Collectively, Rs 2,011 crore worth shares of the IT firm were sold. HDFC MF sold shares of Infosys worth Rs 1,198 crore, the largest among domestic mutual funds. Other fund houses that sold the stock included ICICI Prudential MF, Axis mutual fund, Franklin Templeton, LIC mutual fund, and L&T MF. Infosys was followed by Bharti Airtel, making it the third most sold share. The telecom giant was offloaded by ICICI Prudential mutual fund, DSP mutual fund, Franklin Templeton, Nippon India, and Mirae mutual fund.

Mutual funds jump onto IPOs

Aditya Birla Sun Life MF completely exited Redington India during the month. On the other hand, shares of Home First Finance, Indigo Paints, Blue Star, and Godrej Properties were the fresh additions. HDFC Mutual Fund was seen exiting Angel Broking, SRF, National Aluminium, and Torrent Power. The newly listed IRFC and Indigo Paints were fresh entrants. ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund exited Neogen Chemicals and Chemcon Speciality while adding Home First Finance and Indigo Paints to its portfolio.

SBI mutual fund was also optimistic on the new IPOs, adding Indigo Paints to their portfolio while exiting Amara Raja batteries, Route Mobile, and Navneet Educrat. Kotak Mutual Fund also added Indigo Paints to its kitty.

Hot and Cold stocks

Some of the other big names that were sold in large quantities included shares of Power Grid worth Rs 1,031 crore, TCS stocks worth Rs 986 crore and Bandhan Bank. The hot favourites of fund managers last month was IRFC, the first IPO of 2021. Rs 927 crore worth shares of the company were added to various funds. HCL Technologies and Axis Bank were the other two companies that were favoured by fund managers last month.