Sensex scaled yet another peak and for the first time ever closed above the 12000 mark gaining 7.68 % during the month. Continued inflows from domestic and overseas investors and above average quarterly numbers from the corporate took the market to new highs. Barring few occasional hiccups, the going has been smooth and Sensex at the end of the month added 859 points to close at 12042. MFs continued to pump the money and emerged as big buyers in equities with net investments of Rs 3120 crore while FIIs made net investments of Rs 521 crore. Top 10 scrips of Sensex as per the returns generated by them in last one year and the strategy MFs followed regarding these scrips in the month of April were considered for this analysis. Topping the list is BHEL, which generated whopping 197.5% returns in last one year.

Cement, Auto and FMCG stocks were preferred choices of MFs portfolio in the month of April. Cement stocks ACC and Gujarat Ambuja outshined on the bourses with one month return of 29.6% and 20.18% respectively. MFs trimmed their exposure in ACC while increased in Gujarat Ambuja. ITC, Gujarat Ambuja and Tata Motors were the top held stocks by mutual funds in terms of no. shares. Cipla and Maruti witnessed hefty buying from mutual funds and hiked weightage by 61.24% and 32.74% respectively. Bajaj Auto was the stock where mutual funds were large sellers though it returned 9.64% during the month. Among all the fund houses Fidelity Mutual Fund turned out to be the major seller and offloaded all the shares of Cipla, L&T and Tata Motors it held. SBI Mutual Fund was another fund house found to be actively churning its portfolio.

*(Returns of Sensex for one month period ended on April 2006)

L&T moved up the ladder with 181.69% returns during the year. 19 fund houses in 135 schemes had exposure in this scrip totaling 6.18 million shares up by 6.3% as compared to previous month. Franklin India mutual fund through 7 of its schemes was holding maximum 14.71 lakh shares and marginally hiked its exposure buying 27785 shares during the considered month. UTI Mutual Fund followed it holding 7.42 lakh shares and bought 1.38 lakh shares through fifteen of its schemes. HDFC Mutual Fund offloaded highest 2.14 lakh shares. While Fidelity Mutual Fund sold all the 1.2 lakh shares in Fidelity Equity Fund and Fidelity Tax Advantage Fund.

ACC posted hefty returns of 181.13% in last one year. Nineteen MFs in 98 schemes had 9.84 million shares with them in April 2006 as against 11.56 million shares in March end. 8 Fund houses out of the eighteen MFs decreased their exposure in the month of April. SBI MF reduced its holding in various schemes and offloaded highest 11.23 lakh shares. Few of its schemes such as SBI Magnum Bluechip Fund, SBI Magnum Multicap Fund and SBI Contra Fund offloaded all the shares held. UTI MF holding highest 22.20 million shares further pared exposure in the scrip and sold 1.83 lakh shares. UTI Master Growth Fund was the major seller and sold 1.16 lakh shares.

Bajaj Auto an auto major posted 178.10% returns in last one year. MFs significantly decreased their holding by 46.25% in Bajaj Auto from 2.27 million shares in March 2006 to 1.27 million shares as of April end. Franklin India MF is holding highest 3.75 lakh shares with it in three of its schemes. Out of that Franklin India Flexicap Fund alone had 3.25 lakh shares and continued to hold the same number of shares in the month of April too. SBI India Mutual Fund followed it having 1.43 lakh shares and offloaded around 5.03 lakh shares. Out of the 16 fund houses holding this scrip six fund houses have reduced their exposure.

Though Pharma stocks in general were not multibaggers on bourses in last one year but Cipla posted excellent 149.12% returns in last one year. The MFs had 12.48 million shares of this stock in the month of April. This figure was 7.74 million shares in the month of March. So it seems that there was lot of buying by the fund managers as far as this particular scrip is concerned.16 fund houses through 58 schemes had exposure in this particular scrip. SBI Mutual Fund acquired 35.16 lakh shares and now accounts for highest 60.41 lakh shares for the month of April. Morgan Stanley Fund was another mutual fund that added 8.89 lakh shares in one of its close ended scheme Morgan Stanley Growth Fund. However Fidelity Mutual Fund completely exited the scrip through Fidelity Equity Fund and Fidelity Tax Advantage Fund.

Tata Motors was another auto stock on the charts which delivered 130.25% returns in last one year. The MFs increased their exposure in Tata Motors from 17.84 million shares in March to 19.14 million shares in April 2006. 18 fund houses in 119 schemes had exposure in this scrip and went up by 7.25%. HDFC Mutual Fund is holding highest 53.03 lakh shares and further acquired 3.12 lakh shares. Reliance Mutual Fund followed HDFC MF having 42.7 lakh shares. In 7 of its schemes it is holding 42.7 lakh shares for the month of April. Among all the fund houses it bought highest 13.69 lakh shares in the considered month. Its recently launched equity scheme Reliance Equity Fund bought 6.74 lakh shares. Fidelity Mutual Fund was the major seller and offloaded all the 4.35 lakh shares held in Fidelity Equity Fund and Fidelity Tax advantage Fund.