Mutual funds bought metal, telecom, pharma, cement, and oil and gas stocks in August. Selling was seen in auto majors, sugar, power, textile, and construction stocks, while stocks were re-aligned in the IT, and chemical sectors.

Funds bought huge chunks of Exide Industries [Get Quote], and Himatsingka Seide [Get Quote], while diluted exposure to MTNL [Get Quote], and Triveni Engineering.

Top shares traded by MFs                             (based on volume)
Top 5 shares bought	No. of Shares
Exide Industries	11,696,278
Himatsingka Seide	6,543,779
Reliance Communications [Get Quote]	5,148,156
IDFC [Get Quote]	4,946,552
GE Shipping Company	4,463,593
Top 5 shares sold	No. of Shares
MTNL	4,257,882
Triveni Engineering	3,970,724
Reliance Natural Resources [Get Quote]	3,500,000
Tata Motors [Get Quote]	2,939,684
Hero Honda Motors [Get Quote]	2,804,761

Equity IPOs were once again hot in the mutual fund portfolios in August with Tech Mahindra [Get Quote] stealing the limelight. In terms of value, Reliance Communications, GE Shipping Company, and Aventis Pharma [Get Quote] were the top purchases by MFs, while Tata Motors, Hero Honda Motors, and HDFC [Get Quote] topped the sell list.

A study of the top ten mutual funds' equity portfolios as on August 31, which are UTI, Prudential ICICI [Get Quote], Reliance, HDFC, Templeton, Standard Chartered, Birla SunLife, SBI [Get Quote], Kotak, and Principal MF reveals that three out of the ten MFs added to their investments in Exide Industries.

Pru ICICI MF was the top buyer of the stock with over 115 lakh shares bought, while UTI and Templeton slashed exposure to Exide. Himatsingka Seide, the second top buy in terms of volume, was bought by HDFC MF. The fund house bought over 65 lakh shares of the stock.

MTNL -- the top sell was sold by five MFs. Pru ICICI MF with over 26.5 lakh shares sold was the top seller of the stock. SBI, Stanchart, and Templeton, however, bought MTNL. Among other telecom stocks, Reliance Communications, VSNL [Get Quote], and Bharti Airtel [Get Quote] were bought. Reliance Communications, the top bought stock in terms of value, and was bought by five of the top ten mutual funds. Templeton MF was the top buyer in the stock with over 41 lakh shares bought.

Among the IPOs that listed in August, Tech Mahindra was the most popular one with a total of over 16.6 lakh shares bought by six of the top 10 MFs, followed by GMR Infrastructure [Get Quote] with over 4.6 lakh shares bought. Reliance and Pru ICICI MF were the top investors in Tech Mahindra with over 7.97 lakh and 6.97 lakh shares purchased.

Top shares traded by MFs                             (based on value)
Top 5 shares bought	Value (Rs in cr)
Reliance Communications	154.26
GE Shipping Company	120.76
Aventis Pharma	100.70
Zee Telefilms	96.33
Tech Mahindra	89.68
Top 5 shares sold	Value (Rs in cr)
Tata Motors	248.45
Hero Honda Motors	202.03
HDFC	75.27
MTNL	66.76
Bharat Electronics [Get Quote]	49.75

SBI, UTI, Principal, and Birla MF were the others who invested in this recently listed IPO. Meanwhile, UTI MF was the sole investor in GMR Infrastructure.

Auto major Tata Motors, the top sell value-wise was sold by eight of the 10 funds. UTI MF was the top seller with over 10.4 lakh shares sold. Meanwhile, Pru ICICI and Stanchart MF added to their investments in the stock. Among other auto stocks, Hero Honda, Clutch Auto [Get Quote], M&M, Denso, Ucal Fuel were sold, while Ashok Leyland [Get Quote] was among the top buys.

Sugar, textile, construction, and power stocks too weighed heavy on the sell list. Sugar stocks Triveni Engineering, Bajaj Hindustan [Get Quote], EID Parry, and Ugar Sugar were sold, while Balrampur Chini [Get Quote] was bought. In the textile pack, Arvind Mills [Get Quote], Bombay Rayon, and Welspun India [Get Quote] topped the sell list.

Power pivotals NTPC, Reliance Natural Resources, and Gipco were sold, but Reliance Energy [Get Quote] was bought. Construction majors IVRCL, Jaiprakash Associates [Get Quote], and Noida Toll Bridge were among the top 50 stocks sold, but HCC was a prominent buy.

Pharma stocks Lupin, Cipla, FDC, and Aventis Pharma were among the top buys. Metal pivotals Shri Ramrupai, SAIL [Get Quote], ISMT, Sterlite Industries, Kamdhenu Ispat [Get Quote], and GMDC attracted MFs, while Nalco was sold. Cement majors Gujarat Ambuja [Get Quote] Cement [Get Quote], India Cements [Get Quote], and ACC were bought. In the oil and gas pack, funds invested in HPCL [Get Quote], HOEC, and ONGC [Get Quote], but sold BPCL [Get Quote], and Reliance Industries [Get Quote].

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