Mutual funds (MFs) continued to be bullish on select bank stocks in May, while buying Infosys, TCS and Tata Steel, stocks they shunned in a big way the previous month. ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, ITC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Maruti Suzuki and Larsen & Toubro were among the top buys, while IOC, Sun Pharma, Yes Bank and Lupin, Coal India and Bharat Electronics dominated exits.
Investors pulled out Rs. 40,711 crore in May as against a whopping Rs. 1,50,703 crore of net inflows in the previous month, according to statistics released by industry body, Amfi.
While balanced and equity funds saw a surge in inflows when compared to May 2016, the dampener was the massive outflow of Rs. 64,692 crore from liquid funds last month.
The overall assets under management (AUMs) dropped 1.2 percent to Rs. 19,03,975 crore from Rs. 19,26,302 crore in April, according to the industry body's update for May.
The month saw some significant churn in portfolio allocation, with Infosys, TCS and Tata Steel returning to the "buy" list in May as opposed to stocks that dominated the "sell" list for MFs in April.
Here is the list of top 20 stocks that MFs bought in May (according to IDBI Capital Markets & Securities):