MFs exposure to IT stocks surges to Rs 36,000 cr

Investments by mutual fund houses in software shares surged by 55 per cent to nearly Rs 36,000 crore at the end of May on account of good return given by such stocks.

Equity fund managers’ fund allocation in software or IT stocks stood at Rs 22,986 crore in May 2014. According to market experts, equity fund managers raised their bet on banking, software, auto, pharma stocks last month as these sectors have given smart return to investors. <g data-gr-id="21">Mutual</g> fund is an investment vehicle that is made up of a pool of funds collected from many investors for the purpose of investing in securities such as stocks, bonds, money market instruments and similar assets. As per data available with Sebi, overall deployment of equity funds in IT stocks stood at Rs 35,750 crore in May compared with Rs 34,100 crore in the previous month. Besides, exposure to IT stocks was at 9.45 per cent of equity AUM in May as against 9.43 per cent in the preceding month. 

The benchmark BSE Sensex witnessed a rise of 3 <g data-gr-id="15">per cent</g> last <g data-gr-id="17">month,</g> while the IT index rose by 5 <g data-gr-id="16">per cent</g> during the period under review.

IT was the second-most preferred sector with fund managers after banks, with an exposure of Rs 79,215 crore. Besides, pharma witnessed a deployment of Rs 29,246 crore, followed by auto (Rs 26,215 and finance (Rs 22,925 <g data-gr-id="18">cr</g>).