Mutual funds raised stakes in these 20 companies in March quarter. Do you own any?

Mutual funds substantially raised their stake in select mid- and small-cap stocks in the March quarter, when the broader indices the BSE MidCap and BSE SmallCap indices advanced nearly 7% and 1.1%, respectively. The benchmark BSE Sensex gained nearly 2% during the same period.

Shareholding data showed that fund managers raised their stake in Whirlpool of India by 20 percentage points to 31.14% in Q4FY24 against 11.12% in the preceding quarter ended December 31. It was followed by Aavas Financiers (to 21.13% from 12.05%) and Innova Captab (to 12.38% from 3.40%). Meanwhile, mutual funds poured Rs 1.07 lakh crore in the domestic equity markets during January-March 2024.

Sharing its view on Whirlpool of India, YES Securities in a report said, “Volume across the category grew for Whirlpool with them grew faster than the market resulting in market share gains. The company has rationalised the prices and have added a significant amount of retail executives that have enabled to derive incremental revenue from the distribution. It expects growth momentum to continue in the ensuing quarters as well.”

Data further highlighted that mutual funds also raised their holdings in Shakti Pumps (India), Tips Industries, Pricol, Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC, Hi-Tech Pipes, Avalon Technologies, Voltas, Kalyan Jewellers India, SpiceJet, CMS Info Systems, and GR Infraprojects by 5 percentage point during the quarter gone by.

Axis Capital is also positive on Voltas with a target price of Rs 1,360. “Voltas recently mentioned that it has grown room AC volumes 72% YoY in Q4 FY24, and 35% YoY in FY24. With this growth, Voltas has managed to achieve sales of 2 million AC sales in FY24. While our channel checks in Q4FY24 suggested strong business momentum for Voltas, the scale of growth is totally unexpected. Voltas will not only gain significant market share in Q4FY24, but the higher volumes will also lead to margin improvement in UCP (unitary cooling products) due to operating leverage,” Axis Capital said.

MFs also increased their stake in Jubilant FoodWorks to 19.98% as of March 31, 2024, against 15.41% on December 31, 2024. They also raised their holdings by over 4 percentage points in Star Health and Allied Insurance Company, Swan Energy, Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals, Devyani International and Machhar Industries.

According to Centrum Broking, the management of Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals expects to double sales in 5-6 years and revert to double-digit consolidated EBITDA margin from FY25 onwards.