Mutual funds: What's hot, what not

Mutual funds continued to buy into oil and gas, banking and finance, telecom, and media stocks in April. They also turned bullish on the FMCG sector. Meanwhile, auto and IT stocks yet again weighed heavy on their sell list.

Weightage to metal, and pharma sectors too was pared, while stocks were re-aligned in the chemical, cement & construction, and utility space.

A study of the top ten mutual funds' equity portfolios as on April 30, which are Reliance, ICICI Prudential, UTI, HDFC, Templeton, Birla SunLife, SBI, Standard Chartered, Kotak, and Tata Mutual Fund reveals that funds bought huge chunks of pharma major Ranbaxy Laboratories, while continued to dilute their exposure to auto major Ashok Leyland, and FMCG major ITC.

In terms of value BHEL, Ranbaxy Labs, and Sterlite Industries were the top purchases by funds, while Tata Motors, Tata Steel, and Reliance Industries topped the sell list. Meanwhile, three of the four equity IPOs that listed in April found place in the mutual fund portfolios with Orbit Corporation being the favourite.

Equity IPOs hot with Mutual Funds:

Among the four IPOs that listed in April, Orbit Corporation was the top pick with two of the top 10 MFs purchasing over 16 lakh (1.6 million) shares of the company. ICICI Pru MF was the top buyer with almost 12.7 lakh (1.27 million) shares bought followed by SBI MF with over 340,000 shares.

Birla, Tata and UTI MF together picked over 97,000 shares of ICRA IPO with Birla MF being the top buyer with 90,000 shares bought. Tata MF bought 72,910 shares of chemical stock Advanta India. Meanwhile, Gremach Infrastructure Equipments IPO failed to attract funds.

Stocks and Sectors that attracted Funds:

Ranbaxy Laboratories - the top bought stock was purchased by six out of the top ten funds. Reliance MF was the top buyer of the stock with over 21 lakh (2.1 million) shares bought. ICICI Pru, HDFC, SBI, UTI, and Tata MF also added to its investments in the stock, while Stanchart, and Templeton MF pared exposure to it.

Among other pharma stocks, Dabur Pharma was bought, while FDC, Alembic, Dr Reddy's Labs, and Kopran were among the top sells.

Power equipment manufacturer BHEL was the top buy in terms of value. It was bought by five MFs. HDFC MF was the top buyer with almost 4.5 lakh shares bought.

Among other utility stocks, Tata Power, and CESC were bought, while NTPC, and Reliance Energy were among the top sells.

The top sold stock in terms of volume - Ashok Leyland was sold by six out of the top ten funds. Templeton MF was the top seller of the stock with over 52.8 lakh (5.28 million) shares sold. HDFC, Tata, Stanchart, UTI, and Reliance MF also slashed their exposure to the stock, while SBI, and Birla MF bought it.