Divis Labs, ITC Ltd, Syrma SGS Tech, One 97 Communications Ltd (Paytm) and KPIT Technologies Ltd were among top buys for four big life insurers namely ICICI Pru Life, HDFC Life, Tata AIA Life and Kotak Life in August.
Coforge, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), Mankind Pharma and Bharti Airtel were some of the stocks they were bearish on in the month gone by.
Divis Labs saw these four insurers buying an additional 6,14,000 shares worth Rs 376 crore in August. They held 9,58,000 Divis Labs shares worth Rs 588 crore by the end of the month, data compiled by Nuvama suggested.
The four life insurers bought Rs 355 crore worth 86,71,000 ITC shares in August, taking their total ownership in ITC to Rs 3,432 crore. Syrma SGS Tech saw Rs 305 crore worth insurer buying for the month. Paytm (Rs 251 crore) and Maruti Suzuki India (214 crore) were two other stocks where these insurers bought over Rs 200 crore worth shares month-on-month. Other picks included HCL Tech, Tata Steel, Eternal, KPIT Technologies, Glenmark Pharma, Tech Mahindra and Hero MotoCorp.
For the month, Nifty ended 1.4 per cent lower, the second consecutive month of a decline. The Nifty Smallcap 100 (dwn 4.1 per cent MoM) and Nifty Midcap 100 (down 2.9 per cent MoM) underperformed the Nifty-50 during the month.
Coforge led the consolidated reduction chart, with the four life insurers Rs 269 crore worth IT stock. They now hold a combined Rs 2,062 crore worth 24,11,000 Coforge shares.
M&M saw Rs 235 crore selling. The four insurers held Rs 3,592 crore worth auto stock at the end of August. Mankind Pharma saw Rs 230 crore insurer selling. Selling in Bharti Airtel, Bayer CropScience, Schaeffler India, Tata Elxsi and Kotak Mahindra Bank were to the tune of Rs 150-200 crore. Torrent Pharma, Concord Biotech, Aurobindo Pharma and Reliance Industries were other top sells.
Meanwhile, Vikram Solar, India Cements, NSDL and Clean Science were new entries. Inox India, Lemon Tree Hotels, Anant Raj and Digitide Solutions were complete exits, Nuvama data showed.
Over the last 12 months, largecaps, midcaps, and smallcaps have declined 3.2%, 6%, and 10.8%, respectively. Over the last five years, midcaps (CAGR: 27.3%) have significantly outperformed largecaps (CAGR: 16.5%) by 119%, while smallcaps (CAGR: 25.3%) have markedly outperformed largecaps by 93%