Mutual funds: what's hot, what's not

Mukesh Ambani group's Reliance Petroleum and telecom majors Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications have caught fund managers' fancy in June, emerging as their favorite picks, while a host of new stocks including Spice Communications and Unitech entered their portfolios.

Domestic brokerage Sharekhan's last month's analysis of buy and sell transactions by mutual funds shows that the fund houses purchased stocks from sectors such as infrastructure, IT, telecom and healthcare, while offloading shares from oil and gas and banking sectors.

Domestic mutual funds are lapping up the buying opportunity present in the bear gripped stock market and made net purchases worth Rs 3,179 crore in equities in June.

According to brokerage firm Sharekhan, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Petroleum, wind power major Suzlon Energy and Tata Power figure among the favorite purchases by the equity funds in the month of June.

Other favorite stocks include- Dr Reddy's, IDFC, Piramal Helathcare, Bajaj Electricals, Punj Lloyd, Reliance Communications, Balrampur Chinni Mills, Hindustan Unilever, Shree Renuka Sugars and biscuit maker Britannia Industries.

The top new stocks added to the fund managers portfolios in June, include HDFC Bank, Unitech, Hexaware Technologies, Exxon Mobil Corporation, Piramal Healthcare and Rolta India.

In terms of market value, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Petroleum, Suzlon Energy, Tata Power and Punj Lloyd are among the top picks by domestic fund houses in June.

Nagarjuna Fertilizers, Orbit Chemicals, Everest Kanto and Arvind Mills have also caught mutual funds' fancy during the month.

However, Whirlpool of India, Centurion Bank of Punjab, Seshasayee Paper and Boards, KLG Systel, XL Telecom and Hindustan Oil Exploration are among the stocks, where some of the funds have made a complete exit.