Check out the large cap stocks where FIIs increased stake in Q2

Indian stock indices are consolidating near their peaks and investors, anticipating a correction, are putting more money into large cap counters as they seek greater comfort rather than taking risks with mid- and small-cap stocks.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) and foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have become more cautious about investing in India in recent months but quarterly shareholding data shows they pushed up their holding in more than 200 listed companies. In fact, they increased their stake by two percentage points or more in a fourth of these companies.

In particular, they hiked stake in as many as 89 companies that have a valuation of $1 billion or more in the second quarter through September. This compares with 83 companies where they put additional money in the previous quarter ended June 30.

Of these 89 companies, 48 were large-cap companies. In particular, FIIs were bullish on selective FMCG stocks, PSU banks and gas and power firms. In addition, FIIs also increased their stake in Tier-II pharmaceutical stocks, engineering companies, life insurers and a few automakers.

Top large caps that saw FII buying

If we look at the pack of large caps with a market valuation of Rs 20,000 crore ($2.6 billion) or more, then FIIs pushed up their stake in telecom firm Bharti Airtel, jewellery and watch company Titan, HDFC Life Insurance, engineering firm Siemens, electrical products maker Havells, Eicher Motors, Godrej Properties and state-run GAIL. The FIIs also upped their holding in FMCG companies Dabur, Tata Consumer and Marico.

Among others, Piramal Enterprises, SRF, Bank of Baroda, Bharat Electronics, HAL, Astral, Canara Bank, Alkem, NMDC, Varun Beverages, Voltas, Dalmia Bharat and Tata Elxsi also saw foreign portfolio investors picking up additional shares.

Lower down the order in terms of market cap were companies such as Petronet LNG, Max Financial, MRF, Coforge, NHPC, REC, Hatsun Agro, Ipca Laboratories, Laurus Labs, Indian Hotels and GMR Infrastructure.

The FIIs also bought more shares of ICICI Securities, M&M Financial Services, Oil India, Tata Chemicals, Indian Energy Exchange, Clean Science & Tech, Linde India, Aavas Financiers, IndiaMART, Federal Bank, CG Power, Gujarat Fluorochem and Godrej Industries during the second quarter.

While Dabur, Voltas, Bharat Electronics and Max Financial had also figured in the pack where FIIs bought more stake in the previous quarter ended June 30, most of these companies are different.

In the previous quarter, FIIs had picked up additional stake in India’s second- and third-largest software exporters—Infosys and Wipro—besides Axis Bank, Divi’s Labs, L&T, Grasim, Tata Steel, NTPC and Indian Oil.

Meanwhile, in over four dozen firms FIIs picked up 2% or more additional stake last quarter. Within this, firms with a market capitalisation of Rs 20,000 crore or more where the FIIs hiked stake by 2% or more include names like HDFC Life Insurance, Havells India, Godrej Properties, Voltas, Clean Science & Tech and Aavas Financiers.

In the previous quarter ended June, FIIs had taken a bullish view on technology firm Coforge (previously NIIT Technologies), SBI Cards, IDFC First Bank, Max Financial, Tata Steel, chemical manufacturers Aarti Industries and Graphite India, besides Voltas and Bharat Electronics.