SBI to Sun Pharma: Top 10 stock picks by mutual funds in December

As the year 2017 was nearing its end, India's equity fund managers were busy in shuffling their portfolios before the new year begins - which most see as a challenging year studded with lot of volatility.

Interestingly, after several years, two public sector banks (other than the mammoth State Bank of India) emerged as most chased stocks by fund managers. Shares of Punjab National Bank and Union Bank of India were heavily lapped up as fund managers poured in over Rs 19 billion in the two counters. Fund managers say that recent actions taken to contain NPAs and additional money being pumped into these banks have brought back the public sector banks on the radar.

Apart from these, fund managers primarily looked more for large cap stocks like Sun Pharmaceutical, Vedanta, Larsen & Toubro, Reliance Industries and TCS. In recent advisory, fund managers have raised the caution and advised investors to look for large-cap oriented stocks in current times when stock indices are trading at historical highs.

Interestingly, at a time when IT major Infosys did reasonably better during the Q3 quarter and stocks move up quite well, fund managers sold the counter the most as they liquidated nearly 16 million shares of the company. Maruti Suzuki continued to be on sell radar while top holdings like private banks like IndusInd and Axis could not attract fund managers.

	Most Bought and Most Sold Stocks by Mutual Funds in December, 2017
	Most Bought Stocks				Most Sold Stocks
	Companies	Shares Bought	Money Pumped		Companies	Shares Sold	Money Liquidated
		(in million)	(Rs Billion)			(in million)	(Rs Billion)
	Punjab National Bank	75.00	12.85		Infosys	-16.50	17.24
	IndiGo	6.30	7.62		Maruti Suzuki	-1.10	10.40
	Union Bank of India	43.80	6.32		India Hotels Company	-81.20	9.57
	Sun Pharmaceutical	10.00	5.69		IndusInd Bank	-3.70	6.18
	Shree Cement	0.30	5.42		Axis Bank	-9.90	5.57
	Vedanta	15.90	5.23		Wipro	-16.20	5.08
	Larsen & Toubro	4.00	5.02		GAIL India	-10.10	5.05
	Reliance Industries	5.40	5.01		TVS Motor Company	-3.80	2.96
	Motherson Sumi Sys	13.20	5.01		Castrol India	-14.80	2.86
	TCS	1.80	4.99		Shriram Transport FinCorp	-1.70	2.56
	Source : Edelweiss Fund Insight Report