Top 5 Stocks Mutual Funds Bought and Sold in January 2022

Yet again, retail investors kept faith in Indian equity mutual funds in the month of January 2022.

At a time when foreign investors are selling big time (Rs 359.8 bn in January 2022 to be precise), individual investors stayed put and continued their wealth creation journey through systematic investment plans (SIPs).

Equity mutual fund schemes collected Rs 148.9 bn in January 2022 as compared to Rs 250.8 bn in December 2021.

A total of 15 new schemes were launched including the new silver ETFs launched by ICICI Prudential AMC, and Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC.

Even though January collections were 40% lower when compared sequentially, there's no reason to complain.

The dip in inflows can be attributed to investors mindset as they became more cautious amid rising inflation and geopolitical fears.

Also, there were no large new fund offers (NFOs) in January 2022, whereas December 2021 saw heavy collections from three NFOs.

In fact, the NFO collections of Rs 206.2 bn in December 2021 were more than the combined flows in the previous 3 months.

January 2022 marked the eleventh consecutive month of inflows which took the overall industry's assets under management (AUM) to a new high of Rs 38,890 bn.

SIPs continued to be the preferred mode, collections for which increased to another record high of Rs 115.2 bn. Last month too, SIP collections were at a record high of Rs 113.1 bn.

That's not all. Total number of SIPs also rose to 50.5 m last month from 49.1 m in December 2021.

Among categories, most equity schemes got inflows with flexicap funds getting the highest flows of Rs 25.3 bn followed by sectoral funds at Rs 20.7 bn and large-cap funds at Rs 18.9 bn.

On account of lackluster activity in gold, gold exchange traded funds (ETFs) witnessed outflows to the tune of Rs 4.8 bn. This was the first time since July 2021 when gold ETFs saw outflows.

Let us look at the stocks that mutual funds traded the most during this period...

Top Stocks Sold by Mutual Funds in January 2022

Largecaps: Indian mutual funds trimmed their positions in largecap stocks such as Indus Towers, HDFC AMC, SAIL, IRCTC, and Zomato.

Heavy selling was also seen in JSW Steel.

Midcaps: From the midcap space, mutual funds offloaded GMR Infra, Bank of India, and Deepak Nitrite. Bank of India had also witnessed heavy selling in December 2021.

Smallcaps: CE Info Systems, PTC India, Amara Raja Batteries, and Granules India saw maximum selling by MFs from the smallcap space in January 2022.

Top Stocks Bought by Mutual Funds in January 2022

Largecaps: Coming to buying, Havells India, Vedanta, Apollo Hospitals, and Tech Mahindra among largecaps witnessed massive inflows.

Midcaps: From the midcap space, fund managers loaded up shares of Bandhan Bank, Tata Communications, Prestige Estates, LIC Housing, and CRISIL.

This was the second consecutive month where both CRISIL and Tata Communications witnessed inflows.

Smallcaps: Rain Industries, Hindustan Copper, Neogen Chemicals, and IDFC were the top smallcap buys.

Top Equity Mutual Funds in January 2022

Here is the list of top 10 mutual fund houses as per their equity asset under management (AUM) as on January 2022.

Top 10 Equity Mutual Funds as per AUM

Top Fund Houses	Equity AUM (Rs bn)
SBI Mutual Fund	3,704.2
ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund	2,079.8
HDFC Mutual Fund	1,884.0
Nippon India Mutual Fund	1,466.5
UTI Mutual Fund	1,429.7
Axis Mutual Fund	1,372.5
Kotak Mutual Fund	1,258.5
Aditya Birla SL Mutual Fund	1,123.5
Mirae Asset Mutual Fund	895.1
DSP Mutual Fund	667.6

Data Source: ACE MF, PersonalFN Research

What India's Top Mutual Funds Bought and Sold in January 2022

• SBI Mutual Fund

India's largest equity fund held Rs 3,704 bn in equities as of January 2022.

The top four equity holdings of the fund include HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, and Infosys.

Here's what SBI Mutual Fund bought and sold in January 2022.

New Buys	Value as on 31 January 2022 (Rs m)
National Highways Infra Trust	6,355.80
Avanti Feeds Ltd.	382.70
Prestige Estates Projects Ltd.	219.90
Tata Communications Ltd.	119.10
NBCC (India) Ltd.	62.70
Rain Industries Ltd.	32.30
Chambal Fertilisers and Chemicals Ltd.	22.70
Vodafone Idea Ltd.	7.50
Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers & Chemicals Ltd.	4.30

Complete Sell	Value as on 31 December 2021 (Rs m)
Blue Dart Express Ltd.	148.70
Gateway Distriparks Ltd. - (Amalgamated)	1,749.00
Indiamart Intermesh Ltd.	205.00
Nippon Life India Asset Management Ltd.	29.30
Sequent Scientific Ltd.	84.70
Techno Electric & Engineering Company Ltd.	281.30

Top Increase / Decrease in Stakes	Change in No. of Shares
Trent Ltd.	249,400
Aditya Birla Capital Ltd.	2,015,200
Firstsource Solutions Ltd.	306,800
Dixon Technologies (India) Ltd.	-282,750
Voltas Ltd.	-65,400
Laurus Labs Ltd.	-48,600

Data Source: ACE MF, PersonalFN Research


• ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund

ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund stands as the second largest equity fund with Rs 2,080 bn in equities as of January 2022. The same figure in the month of December 2021 was Rs 2,053 bn.

The top three equity holdings of ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund include ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, and Infosys.

Here's what the fund bought and sold in January 2022.

New Buys	Value as on 31 January 2022 (Rs m)
Kennametal India Ltd.	53.70
Brightcom Group Ltd.	0.60
Saregama India Ltd.	0.30
Punjab & Sind Bank	-

Complete Sell	Value as on 31 December 2021 (Rs m)
Gateway Distriparks Ltd. - (Amalgamated)	2,900.70
PB Fintech Ltd.	296.70
CE Info Systems Ltd.	259.60
Tega Industries Ltd.	183.30
Data Patterns (India) Ltd.	156.30
Latent View Analytics Ltd.	128.20
GMR Infrastructure Ltd.	60.60

Top Increase / Decrease in Stakes	Change in No. of Shares
Aditya Birla Capital Ltd.	412,946
Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers & Chemicals Ltd.	28,982
ABB India Ltd.	15,246
Avanti Feeds Ltd.	-103,486
Coromandel International Ltd.	-128,893
Thermax Ltd.	-34,703

Data Source: ACE MF, PersonalFN Research


• HDFC Mutual Fund

Following ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund we have HDFC Mutual Fund with Rs 1,884 bn in equities as of January 2022.

The top five equity holdings of the fund include State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Infosys, HDFC Bank, and Reliance Industries. It also has a good exposure to L&T.

Here's what HDFC Mutual Fund bought and sold in January 2022.

New Buys	Value as on 31 January 2022 (Rs m)
AGS Transact Technologies Ltd.	738.80
TVS Motor Company Ltd.	70.80
Indian Energy Exchange Ltd.	53.00
H.G. Infra Engineering Ltd.	27.90
Hindustan Copper Ltd.	20.70
Rain Industries Ltd.	14.50
Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers & Chemicals Ltd.	2.40

Complete Sell	Value as on 31 December 2021 (Rs m)
Gateway Distriparks Ltd. - (Amalgamated)	665.20
CE Info Systems Ltd.	316.90
Prince Pipes and Fittings Ltd.	207.90
Paras Defence And Space Technologies Ltd.	193.50
National Aluminium Company Ltd.	190.60
Page Industries Ltd.	147.90
Laurus Labs Ltd.	61.10
Manappuram Finance Ltd.	12.30
Dalmia Bharat Ltd.	0.90
Polycab India Ltd.	0.70

Top Increase / Decrease in Stakes	Change in No. of Shares
Indiamart Intermesh Ltd.	46,325
Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd.	1,100,500
IDFC First Bank Ltd.	2,664,000
Whirlpool Of India Ltd.	-266,146
Steel Authority Of India Ltd.	-1,403,810
Voltas Ltd.	-1,178,018

Data Source: ACE MF, PersonalFN Research

In line with global peers, Indian share markets witnessed increased volatility as high inflation, a slowdown in China, and the growing tensions between Ukraine and Russia took a toll in January.

Investors saw the correction in markets as an opportunity to load up and pumped in amounts in equity mutual fund schemes. And their faith in equity MFs prevailed thanks to positive announcements in the Budget 2022.

In January 2022, fund managers were seen buying shares from the tech space and finance space. A report shows that fund managers loaded HDFC the most followed by Bajaj Finance.

Beaten down shares were also lapped up. And fund managers were smart enough to only load up those companies which had a dominant presence in their sectors. Companies such as Hindustan Copper, Vedanta, Saregama, Thermax, Kennametal India, Indian Energy Exchange, and Hindustan Aeronautics.

That apart, they also took positions in newly listed IPO shares wherein anchor lock-in period opened in January. These included Tega Industries, Metro Brands, Shriram Properties, RateGain Travel, and Medplus Health.

Mutual funds going big on IPOs is the trend we are seeing since months now. The new calendar year has already started with inflows in the MF industry and it seems like this party can go on for a long time.

How the mutual fund buying and selling trend pans out in the month of February 2022 remains to be seen. We will keep you updated on all the developments from this space.

Stay tuned.

Since you're interested in what mutual funds are buying and selling, check out Equitymaster's Powerful Stock Screener.

This tool tracks the stocks recently bought by mutual funds along with the stocks recently sold by them.

Happy investing!

PS: The above piece relies on data from PersonalFN. PersonalFN is a Mumbai based personal finance firm offering Financial Planning and Mutual Fund Research services.

Disclaimer: This article is for information purposes only. It is not a stock recommendation and should not be treated as such. Learn more about our recommendation services here...