MFs preferred cement, telecom in June quarter

Cut exposure to bank, fertiliser, power sectors

Domestic mutual funds have actively churned their equity portfolio in favour of cement, telecommunication, petrochemical, automobile and textile sector stocks in the April-June 2004 quarter.

Mutual funds have cut their exposure to bank, fertilisers, power, shipping and steel sectors. Major mutual fund buying was seen in ACC, Gujarat Ambuja Cement, Tata Motors, Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd (IPCL), Reliance Industries, Mahindra & Mahindra, Satyam Computer Services, Arvind Mills, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, Kochi Refineries and Crompton Greaves during the quarter.

According to the shareholding data at the end of June posted on the exchange's website, mutual funds booked profits in Steel Authority of India (SAIL), Centurion Bank, Syndicate Bank, Vijaya Bank, State Bank of India, Maruti Udyog, Zee Telefilms, Shipping Corporation and IDBI during the period.
 

Mutual funds' share purchase in lakh
Sectors	Jun '04	Mar '04	Chng
Cement	656.85	544.07	112.78
Telecommunication	1049.35	991.27	58.08
Petrochemicals polymers/others	476.80	434.59	42.20
Automobile hcv/mcv/lcv	312.85	274.01	38.83
NBFC	316.79	284.3	32.49
Steel HR/CR/GP/CG	305.07	355.73	-50.66
Cars	125.27	176.41	-51.14
Shipping	257.96	321.01	-63.05
Power	324.42	389.63	-65.21
Entertainment	299.08	370.58	-71.51
Term lending institutions	205.06	278.83	-73.77
Banks	1275.02	1590.62	-315.60
Steel/composite/alloys	1914.04	2283.85	-369.81

They purchased 1.12 crore cement scrips, 58 lakh shares of telecom firms, 42 lakh shares of petrochemical firms, 60 lakh automobile shares, 27 lakh shares of textile firms and 32 lakh equity shares of non-banking financial companies during the quarter.

Mutual funds' holding in 18 cement firms increased from an aggregate 3.93 per cent to 4.74 per cent at the end of June quarter.

Mutual funds bought 55 lakh shares of ACC, 32 lakh shares of Gujarat Ambuja Cement, 28 lakh shares of Birla Corporation and nine lakh shares of Grasim Industries during the quarter.

In the telecom sector they bought 93 lakh shares of MTNL, while 22 lakh shares of Bharati Tele were sold during the quarter.

While funds purchased 54 lakh shares of Tata Motors and 28 lakh shares of Mahindra and Mahindra, they sold shares of two-three wheeler companies and car firms during the quarter.

Mutual funds bought 57 lakh shares of IPCL and seven lakh shares of Reliance Industries.

They aklso purchased 18 lakh shares of Amtek Auto, 35 lakh shares of Arvind Mills and eight lakh shares of Century Textiles during the quarter.

Mutual funds sold 3.70 crore shares of steel composite and alloys stocks, of which they sold 3.51 crore shares of SAIL and 10 lakh equity shares of Tata Steel.

In the banking sector, funds sold 2.10 crore equity shares of Centurion Bank, 60 lakh shares of Syndicate Bank, 30 lakh shares each of Vijaya Bank, State Bank of India and UTI Bank during the quarter.

In the information technology sector, the funds' total stake remained unchanged at 3.40 per cent at the end of the June quarter. But they sold more than five lakh equity shares of HCL Technologies, Infosys Technologies, Hughes Software Systems, Wipro, Polaris Software, Visualsoft Technologies and bought 54 lakh equity shares of Satyam Computer, Subex Systems six lakh shares and two lakh shares each of HCL Infosystem, e-Serve International and Mastek during the quarter.

Other sectors in which mutual funds sold equity shares include entertainment at 72 lakh shares, power at 65 lakh shares, shipping at 63 lakh shares, fertilisers at 42 lakh shares and 26 lakh shares of personal care products firms.