Bajaj Finance, Union Bank among stocks that top private insurers bought in August

Bajaj Finance Ltd, InterGlobe Aviation Ltd (IndiGo), Union Bank Ltd, Star Health, Coforge and Zomato Ltd were among stocks that top private life insurers bought with both hands in August. Four life insurers namely ICICI Prudential Life, HDFC Life, Tata AIA and Kotak Life were seen offloading shares of HDFC Bank Ltd, Jio Financial Services Ltd, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, Infosys Ltd and Reliance Industries Ltd, among others, during the same period.

Stocks such as Union Bank, KPR Mill, Sun TV, TVS Holdings and SBFC Finance were among new entries while IdeaForge Technology and Ujjivan Financial Services were among their complete exits, Nuvama Institutional Equities said in a note.

Among stocks that four prominent life insurance companies bought included Bajaj Finance. Life insurers bought Rs 321 crore worth Rs 4,48,000 Bajaj Finance shares in August to take their total holding in the NBFC to 59,03,000 shares from 54,55,000 shares in July. These four life insurers held Rs 4,228 crore worth Bajaj Finance shares at August end.

Insurers bought Rs 299 crore worth 12,29,000 IndiGo shares in August. The four insurers owned Rs 1,142 crore worth IndiGo shares at August end. Union Bank saw 235 crore in buying by the four life insurers. Star Health (Rs 235 crore), Coforge (Rs 235 crore), Zomato (Rs 225 crore) and Tata Steel (Rs 188 crore) were other top additions by the four insurers.

On the flip side, newly debutant JFS saw Rs 558 crore worth selling. HDFC Bank saw the four insurance companies trimming stake worth Rs 479 crore. HDFC Bank (Rs 479 crore), M&M (Rs 352 crore), Infosys (Rs 326 crore) and Reliance Industries (Rs 299 crore) were other top reductions by the four insurers.

Among top entry and exits, KPR Mills saw Rs 185 crore buying, followed by Sun TV (Rs 170 crore), TVS Holdings (Rs 36 crore) and SBFC Finance (Rs 19 crore). IdeaForge Tech and Ujjivan Financial Services were complete exits.

In value terms, meanwhile, HDFC Bank was the top stock bet of five private life insurance companies (including SBI Life), accounting for Rs 22,873 crore or 5.1 per cent of their total asset under management. Reliance Industries at Rs 16,987 crore was their second biggest holding, followed by Infosys at Rs 14,279 crore, ICICI Bank at Rs 11,174 crore and ITC at Rs 9,639 crore.

Among midcaps, Trent (Rs 3,342 crore) was the top stock bet of five prominent insurance companies. Indian Hotels, Federal Bank, Ashok Leyland and Bharat Forge (Rs 1,550-1,900 crore) were their other midcap bets.