Eight stocks where retail holding surged in Q4 as MFs & FIIs sold

NEW DELHI: Even as the second wave of Covid-19 halted the market momentum from the middle of the March quarter, one set of companies saw retail investors buy into them heavily, latest shareholding data showed.

At least 45 companies from an initial set of 700 stocks (BSE500, BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap indices) saw retail holding rise by 200 basis points, or higher, during the March quarter. At least eight companies saw retail holdings spike by at least 500 basis points and up to 4,000 basis points!

One of the biggest retail bets of the quarter was Majesco, where retail holding jumped by a whopping 39.65 percentage points to 60.79 per cent from 21.14 per cent at the end of December quarter. Both FPIs and mutual funds dumped the stock during the period.

The scrip has soared a solid 374 per cent in 2021 so far, as realtor Aurum Ventures acquired 14.78 per cent stake in the IT consulting and software company, and followed it up by announcing an open offer to buy another 26 per cent stake.

Retail shareholding in Himadri Specialty Chemical jumped by 11.97 percentage points to 34.04 per cent from 22.07 per cent a quarter ago, as Bain Capital cut its stake in the company during the quarter to 11.5 per cent from 24.64 per cent a quarter ago. The scrip is down 4 per cent year to date. The company’s December quarter profit rose a mere 3 per cent. The company recently decided to permanently close a manufacturing unit in Gujarat on expiring of the lease.

Shares of Snowman Logistics have tanked 25 per cent in 2021 so far. Retail investors hiked their stake in the company to 39.07 per cent, up 11.29 percentage points from 27.78 per cent at the end of December. The company has established market position in temperature-controlled logistics, but is exposed to funding risks related to capex, susceptibility to competition and volatility in end-user segments, Crisil said.

Recent debutant Burger King India also saw retail buying, even as the scrip has lost one-fourth of its value year to date. Retail investors now own 13.18 per cent in the fast food chain compared with 4.13 per cent at the end of December quarter, up 9.05 percentage points sequentially. Mutual funds and domestic institutions were among the key sellers.

Analysts said weakness in dine-in business and lockdowns in March may lead to negative same-store sale growth (SSSG) in March quarter even on a soft base. They expect the company to report losses for the quarter.

Jain Irrigation Systems (up 7.61 percentage points), Ircon International (up 6.84 percentage points), Care Ratings (5.5 percentage points) and Take Solutions (5.489 percentage points) are out other companies where retail holding jumped materially in the March quarter.

Among them, a rise in retail holding in Care Ratings was at the expense of stake reduction by MFs and FPIs. In the case of Ircon, the government divested 16 per cent stake via an OFS in March quarter. Elara finds Ircon’s order book diversified, but the focus hazy.

“The management outlook on new inflows also focused on domestic roads and railways as international project finalisations have been delayed due to Covid. Diversification across commercial real estate development, station redevelopment, coal connectivity and solar energy generation projects dilutes focus,” it said.

HNIs were among sellers in Jain Irrigations, while in Take Solutions the sellers belonged to the ‘others’ category.