The shareholding data of retail investors showed that in value terms, the stocks bought by them outnumbered those sold.
In 10 stocks alone, retail investors bet more than Rs 62,100 crore in the quarter ended September, data shared by Prime Database showed.
The value has been calculated by multiplying the difference in retail investors’ June and September shareholding by the average closing price of the stocks during the quarter.
Retail investors invested nearly 75% of this money alone in HDFC Bank.
Their holding in the country’s largest private sector lender increased by about 29 crore shares, and they net invested Rs 46,541 crore in value terms.
The other index heavyweight stock that attracted quite a bit of retail money in the last quarter was Reliance Industries. In value terms, they net bought shares worth Rs 3,560 crore in the oil-to-telecom conglomerate. As of September end, they held around 52 crore shares in RIL, compared to 50 crore shares a quarter ago.
Besides RIL and HDFC Bank, the other index stocks that saw considerable buying by retail investors belonged to the automobile sector, namely Tata Motors and Eicher Motors.
In Tata Motors, retail investors net bought shares worth Rs 950 crore, while in Eicher Motors, they picked up shares worth Rs 744 crore.
Tata Motors’ stock net gained about 6% in the last quarter, buoyed by strong sales in the domestic market and stark improvement in the performance of the British arm Jaguar Land Rover.
ITC was another index stock that attracted retail investors, as they bought shares worth over Rs 1,000 crore. This buying possibly helped in cushioning the downside in the stock, which lost about 1.5% during the last quarter.
As of September end, they held 140 crore shares in ITC, compared to 138 crore shares a quarter ago.
In the midcap space, four stocks that attracted retail investors the most were Page Industries, Vedanta, Rail Vikas Nigam and InterGlobe Aviation.
Page Industries, one of the highly valued stocks, saw buying to the tune of Rs 3,250 crore by retail investors. This community held no shares in the company that sells the “Jockey” brand of apparel as of the June quarter. However, as of September end, they held 835,249 shares in the company.
In Vedanta, retail investors bought shares worth Rs 3,167 crore in the last quarter, and in Rail Vikas Nigam, they invested about Rs 1,100 crore.
What should investors do?
Given the prevailing uncertainties globally, money managers are playing the cautious card at least for the short term.
“We remain cautiously optimistic on the market from a medium-term perspective. Our caution is because markets are trading at a premium to its current fair value,” said Vinay Paharia, CIO, PGIM India Mutual Fund.
Further, market experts see increased volatility in the run-up to the general elections as we inch closer to 2024.
However, Paharia is of the view that these are transient factors and, therefore, advises long-term investors to look beyond these near-term headwinds and keep faith on the long-term growth story of India.
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(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of the Economic Times)