Mutual funds (MFs) stocked up on bank stocks in December in the large cap segment, as fund managers expecting long-term growth in Asia’s third largest economy continued to place bets on lenders.
Punjab National Bank was the most bought large cap stock by domestic fund managers, as the country’s second largest state-run lender raised Rs5,000 crore in a share sale to institutional investors. Asset managers bought Rs1,192 crore of the stock in December, data from Morningstar showed.
“Financials have always been in favour with fund houses and are their largest holdings, particularly top banks—HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and State Bank of India,” said Kaustubh Belapurkar, director of fund research at Morningstar Investment Adviser India Pvt. Ltd.
