Even though the latest market rally is deemed to be turning broad-based with an increasing number of stocks being traded on the stock exchanges, institutional investors? holdings largely remained concentrated in a limited number of stocks, shows an analysis of June quarter holdings by Kotak Institutional Equities. In the three months to June 2014, when the election-led market euphoria was at its peak, top 40 stocks held by LIC accounted for close to 83% of its equity portfolio, shows a data compilation by the domestic brokerage. Five stocks, including ITC, SBI, L&T, ONGC and RIL, together, accounted for 37% of LIC?s equity investments. Two-thirds of the insurance giant’s equity portfolio comprised only 24 stocks with significant allocation towards ICICI Bank (4.4%), TCS (3.5%) and Infosys (3.1%). A bulk of equity investments by FIIs and mutual funds was parked in 40 stocks that accounted for 73% and 66% of their respective portfolios.
While investments by FIIs and LIC remained skewed towards top blue chip stocks, including most of the Nifty constituents, top holdings of MFs appear more diversified, with reasonable mid-cap representation. Stocks like Divi?s Lab, Crompton Greaves, Cummins India, IndusInd Bank and ING Vyasya Bank, were part of key stocks owned by MFs. The 30-share Sensex rallied as much as 13.5% in the quarter ended June 2014, its highest in nearly 19 quarters. However, mid-cap and small-cap stocks outpaced their bluechip counterparts with the respective BSE indices yielding 32.4% and 44.3%, in that order. During the quarter, FIIs increased their ownership across sectors, except for consumer products. MFs reduced their exposure to stocks from FMCG and energy sectors, but raised their holdings in banking and industrial stocks, with Aban Offshore, SKS Micro Finance and DB Corp witnessing their highest purchases. The analysis covered the BSE 200 universe and considered those LIC holdings where the insurance company owned more than 1% of the total market cap of a company.
