Even as foreign institutional investors reduced their stake in some of the leading companies during the quarter ending June 30, mutual funds were seen buying those stocks and increasing their stake.
According to the shareholding pattern declared by the companies for the June quarter, in as many as eight companies which are part of the sensex, foreign funds opted to sell shares when domestic mutual funds were the buyers .
While foreign funds are a force to reckon with and the stakes held by Indian mutual funds are no match to the stakes held by foreign funds, it is perhpas for the first time when foreign funds and domestic funds took a divergent view of the market in case of so many leading shares.
In case of Reliance Industries, while the FIIs stake reduced to 17.11 per cent of the total shareholding as of June 30 against 17.83 per cent as of March 30, mutual funds increased their stake from 2.72 per cent to 2.83 per cent in the same period.
In Bharti Airtel, FIIs stake reduced from 24.99 per cent as of March to 23.63 per cent in June. But mutual funds raised their stake in the company from 2.14 per cent to 2.89 per cent in the same epriod.
It was ditto in HDFC where FII holding went down from 60.62 per cent to 59.09 per cent from March quarter to June quarter. While mutual funds managed to raise their holding in the company from 3.61 per cent to 4.33 per cent.
This trend was also seen in shares like Bhel, Satyam Computer, Hindustan Unilever, Reliance Infrastructure, Hindalco and Ranbaxy.