Continuing with their bullish stance on banking stocks, mutual fund managers raised exposure to the sector to a historic high of over Rs76,000 crore in January. In comparison, investment in banking stocks was at Rs30,339 crore in January 2014.Mutual Funds (MFs) collect funds from various investors for investing in securities such as stocks, bonds, money market instruments and similar assets.
Their investments in banking stocks stood at Rs 76,061 crore as on January 31, 2014, accounting for 21.4 per cent of their total equity assets under management (AUM) of Rs3.55 lakh crore, according to data available with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).
This also marks the fourth consecutive rise in MF industry's exposure to banking stocks. The previous high was December last year when investment in the sector stood at Rs72,835 crore.
MFs had been raising their exposure to banking shares since January last year but their investment level in the sector dropped in September. The industry again increased the exposure in October and the momentum continued till January 2015.