Even as foreign institutional investors reduced their stake in some of the leading companies during the quarter ended 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, foreign funds opted to sell shares in as many as eight companies, which are part of the Sensex. The shares were later bought by mutual funds.
| STAKING CLAIM Mutual fund share holding (in %) | ||
| Company | Quarter ended | |
| Mar-08 | Jun-08 | |
| BHEL | 5.57 | 6.71 |
| Satyam Comp | 4.88 | 5.56 |
| Reliance Infra | 5.04 | 5.16 |
| Hindalco | 3.68 | 4.44 |
| HDFC | 3.61 | 4.33 |
| Hind Unilever | 2.91 | 3.65 |
| Ranbaxy Labs | 3.03 | 3.57 |
| Bharti Airtel | 2.14 | 2.89 |
| Reliance Ind | 2.72 | 2.83 |
It is perhaps the first time when foreign and domestic funds took a divergent view of the market in the case of so many leading companies.
Take the case of Reliance Industries. While the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) reduced their stake to 17.11 per cent as of June 30 against 17.83 per cent (March 30), mutual funds increased their stake from 2.72 per cent to 2.83 per cent during the same period. In Bharti Airtel, FIIs reduced their stake to 23.63 per cent in June 30 from 24.99 per cent in March.
But mutual funds raised their stake in the company from 2.14 per cent to 2.89 per cent in the same period.
It was ditto in HDFC where FII holding went down from 60.62 per cent in March to 59.09 per cent in June. Mutual funds have 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 such as Bhel, Satyam Computer, Hindustan Unilever, Reliance Infrastructure, Hindalco and Ranbaxy. In some companies, however, both FIIs and mutual funds increased or decreased their stakes simultaneously. In some others, the deviation in shareholding was marginal.