Fund house indulging in NAV management?

Is a top performing mutual fund house indulging in NAV management? That’s what some rivals think going by the activity in some of its top midand small-cap stock holdings.

The reason behind this feeling is some stocks which the fund holds — such as a small-cap financial services firm and a speciality chemicals company — have seen sharp spikes intermittently in the last part of the trading session.

Some in the industry think the fund house has lapped up large chunks of illiquid shares across schemes, making it easier to control their moves. While the runup in mid- and small-cap shares so far in 2020 has come as a big relief for several fund managers, the chatter in the industry is that the occasional late spikes in some of these stocks continue.