Bpcl, Hpcl Top Mf Buys In Dec

Refineries majors, Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL), were on the buy list of mutual funds during December 2001. Thirteen mutual fund houses taken up for study have increased their holding in BPCL and HPCL by adding nearly 35 lakh shares since September 2001.

The interest in counters reflects expected valuation, that would be unlocked after phasing out regulated price regime for most petroleum products.

The fund houses mopped up 32 lakh shares of HPCL and nearly 3 lakh shares of BPCL from the open market since September 2001. The funds holding in these oil sector PSUs thus stood at 226 lakh shares in BPCL worth Rs 427 crore and 272 lakh shares in HPCL valued at Rs 336 crore.

The total value of investment in the PSUs at Rs 2,023 crore as at December 31, 2001, spread among 24 scrips. The Unit Trust of India, accounted for nearly 83 per cent of the value of investment.

The private sector funds increased their holding in BPCL and HPCL both. While the public sector Unit Trust of India tilted more towards HPCL, increasing its holding by over 16.5 lakh shares and just 0.33 lakh shares in BPCL.

The 13 funds together increased their holding in IBP by over 0.48 lakh shares. This made its current holding stand at 4.76 lakh shares. While the holding in Chennai Petroleum increased to 4.17 lakh shares as on December 2001 from 3.98 lakhs shares as on September 2001. The holding in IOC was at 22.55 lakh shares.