This Rs 6 lakh crore money manager bought these stocks in market mayhem in Feb

Country’s biggest mutual fund SBI Funds Management or SBI Mutual Fund was on a shopping spree amid the selloff in February when the benchmark BSE Sensex tumbled over 3 per cent. Broader indices BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices too lost around 5 per cent and 9 per cent, respectively. Market watchers believe that war between Russia and Ukraine, selling by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and concern over rising inflation weighed sentiment.

Data available with Primemfdatabase showed that the money manager picked stocks from across the sectors and categories including large-caps, mid-caps and small-caps during the month. In the banking space, it added more than 1 crore shares of private sector lender ICICI Bank and public sector bank State Bank of India (SBI) last month. SBI Funds Management also bought additional 64 lakh shares of HDFC Bank, 41 lakh shares of Federal Bank and 33 lakh shares of Axis Bank during the month.

Despite strong Q3 results, banking stocks declined up to 10 per cent in February amid macro risk fears. Emkay Global Financial Services believes that the recent correction offers a good entry point into quality stocks like ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, SBI and Federal Bank.

In his latest letter to investors, Vinay M Tonse, managing director and chief executive officer, SBI Mutual Fund said, “The news of the conflict has been keeping markets on tenterhooks. We have seen several bouts of volatility over the past couple of weeks which could likely continue in the days to come.”

“Apprehension and anxiety are a natural reaction to any uncertainty. These fears are further heightened when our hard-earned money is on the line. However, throughout history, we have seen several events that destabilised markets in the short term, but in the long-term markets have proven resilient. What this means is that opportunities exist amid chaos,” he added.

The mutual fund also bought around 98 lakh shares of FMCG major ITC. The money managers also lapped up over 40 lakh shares of Infosys, Nuvoco Vistas Corp and NTPC. Wipro, Cipla, HDFC, Reliance Industries, Muthoot Finance, Power Grid, Zee Entertainment, Vodafone Idea, Bharti Airtel, HDFC Life Insurance and Bank Bank stood among other major buys of SBI Mutual Fund. It bought over 20 lakh shares of these companies last month.

On the other hand, it sold over 10 lakh shares in IDFC First Bank, Zomato, FSN E-Commerce Ventures, Elgi Equipments, Tata Power, Punjab National Bank, Ambuja Cement, ONGC, Bank of Baroda, Tata Motors, City Union Bank and Bharat Electronics.

SBI Mutual Fund had a total asset under management (AUM) of Rs 6,38,536 crore as of February 28, 2022, according to IDBI Capital Markets. On the other hand, its equity AUM stood at Rs 3,72,088 crore.

In and Out

Vedant Fashions, Equitas Small Finance Bank, Metropolis Healthcare, Indiabulls Housing Finance, Intellect Design Arena and Syngene International emerged as fresh entrants in the portfolio of SBI MF. On the other hand, it completely exited players like Escorts, Nazara Technologies, CE Infosystems, Polycab India and Chambal Fertilisers & Chemicals.