Out of the around 800-odd companies that have reported their shareholding patterns for the December quarter so far, only 64 have seen a rise in MF holdings. Domestic funds sold stocks worth Rs 26,427.83 crore in December, Rs 30,760 crore in November and Rs 14,492 crore in October, Sebi’s monthly bulletin showed.
The domestic institutional investors raised their stake in Birlasoft by 5.57 percentage points to 14.54 per cent in the December quarter, from 8.97 per cent at the end of September. This was the fifth straight quarter in which mutual funds bought stake in the IT firm.
Elara Capital, which has a ‘buy’ rating on the stock, is expecting the firm to report an 8.2 per cent YoY growth in revenues (5.2 per cent QoQ) to Rs 901.7 crore, from Rs 833 crore reported for the year-ago quarter. The Ebit margin is seen expanding by 189 basis points YoY (87 basis points QoQ) to 12.4 per cent from 11.5 per cent in the September quarter, and 10.5 per cent in the December quarter of last year.
Fund houses raised their stake in LIC Housing Finance by 513 basis points to 9.62 per cent from 4.49 per cent sequentially. LIC Housing Finance is 40.3 per cent owned by LIC and is India’s second largest housing finance company.
“The stock currently trades at 0.7 times FY23E book value, which is 30 per cent below the three-year and 45 per cent below five-year average valuations. LICHFL is well-placed cyclically for a rerating,” JM Financial said in a note.
MFs were quite bullish also on IRCTC, where they hiked their stake by 407 basis points to 5.04 per cent from 0.97 per cent sequentially. During the quarter, the government sold IRCTC shares worth Rs 4,374 crore through an offer for sale (OFS).
MF raised stake in Coforge, erstwhile NIIT Technologies, for the second straight quarter to 10 per cent from 6.72 per cent in the September quarter and 5.53 per cent in the June quarter. Emkay Global is expecting the IT firm to report a 2.9 per cent sequential growth in dollar revenue for the December quarter.
“The BFS and insurance verticals are expected to lead growth. Travel is likely to see a steady recovery, aided by wallet share gain. EBIT margins may decline 30 bps QoQ due to rupee appreciation and lower utilisation. We expect net profits to grow 5.2 per cent QoQ,” it said.
MFs also raised stakes by 2.4 percentage points in Indoco Remedies, 2.15 percentage points in Orient Electric and 1.87 percentage points in Firstsource Solutions. Indoco Remedies is seen reporting a sequential jump in revenues, as the domestic business revives partially while the US business continues to see a rampup, said Nirmal Bang Securities.
Orient Electric, a CK Birla group firm, reported a six-fold jump in profit in September quarter and the company is expected to continue with a good show in December quarter as well.
Anand Rathi says December could be another quarter of revenue surprise for the Firstsource Solutions. The company’s mortgage business continues to do well, it said, and added that margins would rise from revenue growth and tailwind of a strong British pound.
“We expect growth to be spread across contact centre and back office segments. Healthcare may start showing some progress,” it said.
Century Plyboards (India), M&M Financial Services, Camlin Fine Sciences, Stylam Industries, Ahluwalia Contracts (India), Elantas Beck India and Greenlam Industries are six other stocks where MFs hiked stake by over 1 per cent during the December quarter.
