Top stocks sold and bought by fund managers in August

India's equity fund managers, flushed with robust inflows in August, were quite choosy when it came to picking stocks. Amid net inflows of Rs 6,500 crore, they were net buyers of shares worth Rs 2,700 crore. However, while making investments, they kept India's largest lenders - private as well as public sector banks - among their top priorities. They heavily sold shares of Axis Bank and shifted to counters like HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and State Bank of India, in search of value. RBL Bank, the new bank to list on the bourses, was the fourth most sought after counter. The month also saw some contrarian calls in the information technology (IT) sector, as fund managers lapped up falling shares of Infosys and Wipro while pumping nearly Rs 850 crore into these two IT giants.

However, the oil & gas sector was a clear loser in their portfolio. Among the top eight most-sold counters, five were from the oil & gas sector. Shares of companies like Hindustan Petroleum, Bharat Petroleum, Indian Oil, Oil & Natural Gas Corporation and Castrol India bore the brunt. In all, they sold oil companies' shares worth Rs 1,850 crore.