Mutual fund managers raise a toast to ICICI bank

A steep rise of nearly 15 per cent in the shares of ICICI Bank over the last week on the back of Essar deal has benefited several equity schemes with higher exposure to the private lender. ICICI Bank is the second-most sought-after stock by India's mutual funds. In a week when a benchmark index, Nifty 50, returned 1.5 per cent, equity schemes with ICICI allocation in excess of five per cent managed to do much better. These schemes not only did better than the Nifty 50, but also outperformed large-cap equity schemes. After the Essar deal, funds got excited about the banking sector in general. ICICI Bank, in particular, was the main beneficiary. According to them, similar deals are likely and much needed for the banking sector. On Monday, ICICI gained a further 2.4 per cent.