Chart: Hits and misses for equity MFs

Most stock buys in January have done well for equity fund managers. Reliance Industries, BSE, GAIL India, Infosys and HDFC Bank were among the stocks where MFs increased their exposure in January. All these stocks rallied sustainably in February. ONGC was the only major stock purchased by MFs in January, which gave negative returns in February. On the flip side, MFs must be regretting selling shares of companies like Bajaj Finserv, Titan Company, Bharat Financial Inclusion, TCS and Axis Bank in January. These counters rallied between nine per cent and 22 per cent in February.  Power Grid was the only major stock where they timed their selling well in January. The stock corrected seven per cent in February. It is worth mentioning fund managers tend to invest with a long-term vision and do not give too much importance to the short-term fluctuation in prices of their holdings. Further, a month period is too short to judge the fund managers' investment decisions.