Emami, KPR Mill, Kajaria Ceramics among mid-cap picks of mutual funds last quarter

Indian stock indices, which had corrected sharply three months back, have gained back most of the lost ground in the last one month. With a fresh push coming on Monday ahead of a trading holiday, the benchmark indices are just 4% below their all-time peak.

Quarterly shareholding data shows local mutual fund managers pushed up their holding in hundreds of listed companies.

In particular, MFs hiked stake in as many as 112 companies that have a valuation of $1 billion or more last quarter, compared with 118 companies in the quarter ended March 31 and 108 companies in the three months ended December 31, 2021.

Out of the larger set of companies where they hiked stake, there were 62 mid-caps as compared to 69, 78 and 67 such firms that saw MFs push up their holding in the quarter ended March 31 2022, December 31 and September 30, 2021, respectively.

This shows they were not particularly bullish on the mid-caps even as they saw a bottom fishing opportunity.

TOP MID CAPS THAT SAW MF BUYING

If we look at the pack of mid-caps with market cap between Rs 5000-20,000 crore then MFs pushed up their stake in Emami, KPR Mill, L&T Finance Holdings, Sun TV Network, Kajaria Ceramics, Prestige Estates, Ajanta Pharma, Carborundum Universal, IRB Infrastructure, Indian Energy Exchange, NALCO and J B Chemicals.

Among others Century Plyboards, Shriram City Union Finance, Campus Activewear, Nuvoco Vistas, Radico Khaitan, Suven Pharmaceuticals, City Union Bank, Brigade Enterprises, Aster DM Healthcare, Gujarat Narmada Valley, Motilal Oswal Fin, V-Guard Industries and Mahindra CIE Automotive too saw MF buying activity.

Prestige Estates, Indian Energy Exchange, Kajaria Ceramics, IRB Infrastructure, Suven Pharma, J B Chemicals, Motilal Oswal, Nuvoco Vistas, Radico Khaitan, V-Guard were also stocks where MFs had hiked stake in the previous quarter.

If we take a peek at mid-caps where mutual funds picked 2% or more additional stake last quarter we get a list of 11 stocks compared to 13 and six stocks in the three months ended March 31, and December 31, 2021, respectively.

This pack has names like Emami, Kajaria Ceramics, Campus Activewear, KIMS, JK Paper, Go Fashion, CCL, V Mart, Delta Corp, Tatva Chintan Pharma and Orient Electric.