Fund managers add private banks, select pharma stocks in March

Fund managers adopted a cautious approach in March after the sharp fall in the Nifty in the fi rst two months of 2016. March saw sharp gains of 10.75% in the Nifty, on account of strong flows from FIIs.

As per distributors, money continued to flow in through SIPs into mutual funds, with lump sums coming largely into ELSS funds for tax savings on account of it being the last month of the financial year.

Among banking stocks, fund managers continued to prefer retail banks over their corporate peers and continued to add HDFC Bank to their portfolio.

Fund managers trimmed their positions in Infosys and Tech Mahindra on fears that growth is likely to be slow in the US and European markets.

In the pharma space, funds added Lupin and Cipla, post the sharp correction in Lupin after it received nine observations on its Goa plant from the US FDA.