The Hindu Business Line : Institutions pick up large stakes in mid-caps

INSTITUTIONAL investors, both domestic and foreign, have become very aggressive in the Indian equity market in the recent past by picking large stakes in several companies through open market purchases.

This trend is more visible in mid-cap stocks indicating their faith in these companies.

According to filings made with the stock exchanges, FIIs and mutual funds picked up more than 5 per cent stake in several companies. In most of them, their stake crossed more than 5 per cent this month.

"Mid-cap stocks are riskier investment than large-cap stocks and if FIIs and mutual funds invest in these companies, it shows good business prospects for the companies," said a dealer with a foreign broking firm. He said in several companies, past performance has not been good, but the future is likely to be very good.

Some of the companies in which the holding of institutional investors is more than 5 per cent include Aptech, Aventis, KEC International, Mysore Cement, Samtel Color, NIIT Technologies and Lloyd Electric.

Some of the big investors who had bought large stakes include Fidelity International, Arisaig Partners Investments Managers, Prudential ICICI Mutual Fund, SBI Mutual Fund and HSBC Mutual Fund.

There has also been a rise in the stock price of several companies in which a single investor had bought a large stake and the rise has been more than 20 per cent in the last one month.

For instance, the stock price of Aptech Ltd increased 46 per cent in the last one month in which SBI Mutual Fund picked 5 per cent stake.

Similarly, the stock price of Infomedia India increased 35 per cent in which Fidelity International has 8.92 per cent stake.

Other companies which have seen a rise in their stock price in the last one month include Samtel Color (25 per cent), Lloyd Electric (41 per cent) and IVRCL Infrastructure (17 per cent). In some, there has been fall in the stock price.

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