Fund managers pruned their exposure to crisis-hit Adani Group stocks amid an unprecedented sell-off triggered by a report by US-based Hindenburg Research, said a report by Business Standard. As per the market daily, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone topped the list of most-sold large-cap stocks by domestic mutual funds in February.
Ambuja Cements and Adani Enterprises were also among the top five large-cap companies that witnessed selling by MFs, it added.
Quoting a report by ICICI Direct, BS revealed that MF holding in Adani Ports fell by 28 percent month-on-month in terms of number of shares, meanwhile, the value of the holdings was down over 30 percent. In the case of Ambuja Cements and Adani Enterprises, the number of shares held by MFs declined 19 percent and 15 percent, respectively, it informed.
Almost 98 percent of change in MFs’ Adani Group exposure in February was a result of changes in active portfolios, it said.
Quant MF, which had the highest non-hedged active exposure to Adani Group stocks at the end of January, offloaded the highest number of Adani Ports shares among MFs last month at 8.2 million, noted BS. According to its February-end factsheet, it sold off its complete holdings in Adani Group companies last month, it said.
Before the Hindenburg report came to the fore in January, MFs had an exposure of 0.64 percent to Adani Group companies, the report informed quoting data by Fisdom.
The Fisdom report also showed that Kotak MF and SBI MF had hedged almost 90 percent of their Adani Group holdings of around ₹2,000 crore each (as of December 31, 2022). Quant MF had the highest non-hedged active exposure to the stocks at ₹1,276 crore at the end of December, it noted.
Data shared by ICICI Direct further observed that SBI MF and Kotak MF were the other major sellers of Adani Ports, with their holdings down by around 3.8 million shares each, added the report.
The large-cap stocks that were bought the most in February included InterGlobe Aviation, GAIL, Macrotech Developers, Tata Motors, Tech Mahindra, LTIMindtree, Dabur India, Info Edge, Havells India, and Hindustan Zinc, it said.
