Sundaram Midcap buys bank, IT; sells engineering

Sundaram BNP Paribas Select Midcap enhanced its exposure to banking, IT, media, oil & gas, utilities and metal sectors. However it pared exposure to engineering stocks.


In banking space it introduced Oriental Bank of Commerce and Bank of Maharashtra. It also bought 1 lakh shares of Centurion Bank of Punjab, Indian Bank and Power Finance Corporation. Andhra Bank and Bank Of Baroda were also in buying list. However, it sold Union Bank of India, Bank of India and India Infoline.


In IT pack it made fresh exposure to Sparsh BPO Services and also purchased Prithvi Information Solutions and 1.51 lakh shares of Polaris Software Lab, 1.05 lakh shares of Mphasis. In media sector it introduced Television Eighteen and Wire and Wireless.


In oil & gas pack it introduced Indian Oil Corporation and bought 2 lakh shares of HPCL. Buying was also seen in utility space as it bought Gujarat Industries Power, Torrent Power AEC and Tata Power Company.


In metal pack, the scheme introduced Kirloskar Ferrous Industries and Jindal Steel & Power. It bought Jindal Saw and 1.5 lakh shares of Welspun Gujarat Stahl Roh.


In cement sector, it bought Birla Corporation, Shree Cements, Jaiprakash Associates and Prism Cement. In enginnering pack, it exited Elgi Equipments, however it bought KEC Infrastructures.
Jaiprakash Associates, Mphasis and Polaris Software Lab were the top stocks held by the scheme in March. Cement (9.85%), Technology (9.75%) and Engineering (8.26%) were the top invested sectors in the scheme's portfolio. (Check out - Top stocks held by Sundaram BNP Paribas Select Midcap).


The equity exposure of the scheme has decreased from 73.34% to 70.88%. The total assets managed by the scheme over the month were Rs 2033.95 crore as on March 30, 2007.
Over the last one year, Sundaram BNP Paribas Select Midcap has yielded 11.5% returns as against 3.83% yielded by its benchmark BSE Midcap Index as on April 13, 2007.