Large, mid, and small cap stocks: Mutual fund buying and selling trends for May unveiled

In a recent note, reviewing the mutual fund trends for the month of May, brokerage Phillip Capital pointed out that higher buying was observed in the Industrials sector (weight at 9.3 percent, up 66 bps MoM), Auto & Ancillary (9.1 percent, up 44 bps), Metals & Mining (3.7 percent, up 11 bps), Staples (4.7 percent, up 7 bps), and Building Materials (3.9 percent, up 5 bps).

Conversely, mutual funds reduced holdings in Financials (28 percent, down 61 bps), IT (7.9 percent, down 20 bps), Oil & Gas (6.5 percent, down 19 bps), Agriculture & Chemicals (2.2 percent, down 16 bps), and Discretionary (7.2 percent, down 15 bps). Cash levels were at 4.3 percent of AUM in May 2024, up from 4.2 percent in April 2024.

Read here: Mid-cap mutual funds' AUM exceed largecaps' for the first time

Top mutual fund buys and sells across sectors:

Top 5 stocks bought by mutual funds

Large Caps: HDFC Bank, IRFC, HDFC Life, ITC, IOCL

Mid Caps: Vodafone, Suzlon, SAIL, IDFC First Bank, Apollo Tyres

Small Caps: Ujjivan SFB, Indiabulls Real Estate, Aptus Value Housing Finance, HFCL, CESC

Top 5 stocks sold by mutual funds 

Large Caps: Canara Bank, PNB, BEL, GAIL, Vedanta

Mid Caps: NHPC, GMR Airports, Indus Towers, BHEL, Indian Hotels

Small Caps: Hindustan Copper, Manappuram Finance, J&K Bank, TV18 Broadcast, IEX

Read here: 5 top performing large and mid cap mutual funds over 10 years

Sector-wise changes in stock holdings (Month-on-Month)

Higher Exposure

Industrials: +66 bps (Ircon, RVNL, Engineers India, L&T, CG Power)

Auto & Ancillary: +44 bps (Apollo Tyres, Ashok Leyland, Tata Motors, Exide, M&M)

Metals & Mining: +11 bps (SAIL, Tata Steel, Hindalco, JSW Steel, Jindal SAW)

Staples: +7 bps (ITC, Marico, Dabur, HUL, Jyothy Labs)

Lower Exposure

Financials: -61 bps (Canara Bank, PNB, Manappuram Finance, J&K Bank, Jio Financial)

IT: -20 bps (Coforge, CMS Info Systems, LTIMindtree, Netweb Tech, Tata Elxsi)

Oil & Gas: -19 bps (GAIL, Mangalore Refinery, MGL, Gujarat Gas, Supreme Petrochem)

Agriculture & Chemicals: -16 bps (Castrol, Aarti Industries, Laxmi Organic, Chambal Fertilisers, Pidilite Industries)

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In May 2024, the Nifty reached a new high of 23,111 before ending its three-month winning streak, closing 74 points (or 0.3 percent) lower month-on-month (MoM) at 22,531, after fluctuating 1,290 points. Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) recorded their tenth consecutive month of inflows, totaling USD 6.7 billion, while Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) saw outflows of $3 billion.

Despite the weak market sentiment, with the Nifty declining slightly by 0.3 percent MoM, the equity Assets Under Management (AUM) for domestic mutual funds (including ELSS and index funds) increased by 2.7 percent MoM to ₹27.7 lakh crore in May 2024. Meanwhile, the Mutual fund equity net inflows (including open, closed, and NFOs) were strong at ₹34,700 crore in May 2024, a multi-month high compared to ₹18,900 crore billion in April 2024. Excluding NFOs, net flows were ₹25,100 crore versus ₹17,700 crore

Read here: Equity mutual fund inflows skyrocket to record ₹34,697 crore in May: AMFI

This rise was driven by higher New Fund Offerings (NFOs) compared to the previous month, leading to a 20.4 percent MoM increase in equity scheme sales to ₹78,800 crore. Meanwhile, redemptions decreased by 1 percent MoM to ₹39,600 crore, resulting in significant net inflows of ₹39,200 crore in May 2024, up from ₹25,400 crore in April 2024.

Meanwhile, the total AUM of the mutual fund industry also grew by 2.9 percent MoM to ₹58.9 lakh crore in May 2024. Investor interest in mutual funds remained strong, with inflows and contributions to systematic investment plans (SIPs) reaching a new peak of ₹20,900 crore in May 2024, up 2.6 percent MoM and 41.7 percent year-on-year (YoY).

Disclaimer: The views and recommendations made above are those of individual analysts or broking companies, and not of Mint. We advise investors to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.