Equity funds’ sectoral churn in January – MFs favour ‘cheaper’ IT, health, auto, and consumer; cut down banks, infra

Equity fund managers, in January, accumulated stocks in beaten-down segments like IT, healthcare, auto, and consumer discretionary where valuations are cheaper than the rest of the market. They cut exposures to banks, financial services, and infrastructure stocks. According to a study by Motilal Oswal Financial Services, the weight of the technology sector in fund allocation, which was at a 28-month low of 9.7% in December, climbed to 10.2% in January, while that of auto rose to a 49-month high of 8%. The weightage of private banks, after increasing to a 25-month high of 19% in December, moderated to 18.7% in January. Fund managers saw value in select pharma stocks like Lupin, Gland Pharma, Alembic, and Zydus Lifesciences, which have been underperformers in recent times. Adani group holdings saw a shuffle following the Hindenburg report on January 24. While top funds bought Adani Ports and ACC, they were mostly sellers in Ambuja Cement and Adani Enterprises.