Portfolio details of leading mutual funds reveal that many fund managers turned cautious on Infosys much ahead of the results and the exit announcements of two top officials.

Asset management companies pruned their holdings in the stock in March. Fourteen of the 35 fund houses reduced holdings in Infosys between end-February and end-March.

The technology bellwether announced results on April 15. On the same day, the co-founder, Mr K. Dinesh, and the human resource director, Mr T.V. Mohandas Pai, announced resignations.

Fund houses, through schemes, hold varying exposures to Infosys in their portfolio, with the weights ranging from less than one per cent to as high as 50 per cent (in sector funds) of the portfolio of the scheme.

Infosys is fairly widely held, with 155 of the 311 equity schemes we tracked holding up to 5 per cent of their portfolio in the stock. Ten schemes hold up to 10 per cent of their assets in this tech major.

Among the fund houses, DSP BR Mutual Fund through sold 8,84,669 shares of Infosys in March, almost three-fourth of its February holdings. IDFC Mutual Fund sold 38,735 shares. SBI Mutual Fund and Kotak Mutual Fund also sold substantial quantities of the stock, trimming their holdings in Infosys. The recently launched Motilal Oswal Mutual Fund appeared to be among the most pessimistic and sold its entire holding of 48,379 stocks in March.

But some fund houses took a contrarian bet and increased their holdings in March. ICICI Prudential MF, Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund and Reliance MF increased their holdings in Infosys, mopping up substantial quantities between end of February and March.

Over a one-year period, 14 equity schemes have diluted their holdings in the stock. Reliance Mutual and HDFC MF have increased their holdings over the year, but DSP BlackRock, Birla Sun Life, ICICI Prudential and IDFC have trimmed their holdings.

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