MFs offload Lupin, TCS and Motilal Oswal shares

Fund managers offloaded shares worth around Rs 700 crore in these stocks in February-March period

Shares of pharmaceutical major Lupin and information technology (IT) giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has witnessed the maximum selling by mutual fund houses in the past two months. Interestingly, domestic brokerage Motilal Oswal has also seen heavy offloading of shares by equity fund managers. The total quantity sold in these three shares has been about Rs 900 crore during February and March.

Lupin was the most avoided (in terms of value), as the counter witnessed sale of 2.15 million shares worth Rs 432 crore. Fund managers shed shares of TCS worth Rs 261 crore or a little over a million shares between January and March this year. With this, TCS lost its position in the top 10 holdings.

Stocks of Motilal Oswal were the most sold (in terms of number of shares) as equity fund managers truncated holdings by over 70 per cent - bringing down the total shares held to 2.69 million in March, against 9.89 million in January.

The ‘sell’ call on Lupin and TCS came just ahead of a correction in these stocks.

Swati Kulkarni, executive vice-president and fund manager at UTI Mutual Fund, says, "In the IT sector, overall, there are concerns about margin pressure on the companies." She further added that on the pharmaceutical space, stretched valuations are making investors cautious.

Lupin, which had hit a 52-week high of Rs 2,112 early this month, is currently down 17 per cent from its peak at Rs 1,749. Fund managers managed to sell Lupin when it was fast rising above Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000.

In the case of TCS, the profit booking happened at around Rs 2,500-2,700. The stock, post its Q4 numbers, is down about 12 per cent from at Rs 2,447 against its recent high of Rs 2,774.

According to Ambareesh Baliga, an independent market expert, “The current year for information technology will be a tough one. There are concerns on the sector for a while and even companies have flagged off such concerns including TCS.”

In other counters, among the most sold scrips include Bosch Ltd (Rs 182 crore), Mahindra & Mahindra (Rs 170 crore), HCL Technologies (Rs 139 crore), Oil India (Rs 138 crore), BPCL (Rs 134 crore) and Havells India (Rs 123 crore).