November saw the benchmark indices Nifty 50 and Nifty Bank rise 4.4% and 4.66% respectively. Both of these indices are currently trading close to their all-time highs, although there was a correction over the past week. During this month, mutual fund managers spotted opportunities in private and PSU banks along with some of the new-age tech companies, which may hold future potential.

The stocks in this article are screened from the Nifty 500 and have seen at least four schemes buy more than one lakh shares each this month. 

Zomato - Food delivery business showing signs of profitability

Zomato is an app-based food delivery company operating across major cities and towns in India. On a standalone basis, Zomato posted a profit of Rs 11.8 crore in Q2FY23 for the first time. This has encouraged fund managers and they expect these numbers to improve in the future. The company’s newer initiatives like Intercity Legends, where one can order from select cities in India for next-day delivery, are likely to add to the bottom line.

Though the food delivery business is showing signs of profitability, its other businesses like grocery delivery are in the red and unlikely to be profitable for the next few quarters.

Fund Managers who bought shares of Zomato

Fund managers who added shares of Zomato to their portfolios include Manish Gunwani and Kinjal Desai for Nippon India Growth Fund - Growth, Jinesh Gopani for Axis Long Term Equity Fund Growth, Jinesh Gopani and Hitesh Das for Axis Growth Opportunities Fund Regular Growth, and Vaibhav Dusad and Sharmila D’mello for ICICI Prudential Technology Fund Growth.

Union Bank of India - Strong performance on key metrics piques investors’ interest

Union Bank of India is an Indian PSU (public sector undertaking) in the banking sector. This year, PSU banks have shown a remarkable recovery in their NPAs and have also been able to expand their footprint in loan growth.

Union Bank of India posted its highest-ever revenue and net profits in Q2FY23 with revenues at Rs 23,475 crore and net profit of Rs 1,853 crore. Its NPA ratio was down to 2.64% in Q2FY23 from 4.61% in Q2FY22. All these factors contributed to a sharp rise in its share price, which almost doubled in one year.

Fund Managers who bought shares of Union Bank of India

Fund managers who added shares of Union Bank of India include Chirag Setalvad and Priya Ranjan to HDFC Mid-Cap Opportunities Fund Growth scheme, Sanjeev Sharma and Vasav Sahgal for two schemes, Quant Mid Cap Fund Growth as well as Quant Active Fund Growth and Vasav Sahgal to Quant Tax Plan Growth scheme.

SAIL (Steel Authority of India) - PLI scheme expected to boost production

SAIL is a public sector undertaking based in New Delhi. It is owned by the Ministry of Steel. 

SAIL enhanced production capacity with the commissioning of Bhilai plant’s largest Blast Furnace – Blast Furnace 8 (BF 8), christened Mahamaya. It is the fastest to have crossed 11 million tonnes (MT) cumulative production this month. SAIL has also been selected for the central government’s PLI scheme for speciality steels. The proposed investments are anticipated to increase the nation's capacity for speciality steel by 26 MT .

Fund Managers who bought shares of SAIL

Buying interest in SAIL came from Sailesh Jain for Tata Arbitrage Fund Regular Growth, Hiten Shah for Kotak Equity Arbitrage Fund Growth, Kayzad Eghlim and Nikhil Kabra for ICICI Prudential Equity Arbitrage Fund Regular Growth, and Kinjal Desai and Anand Gupta for Nippon India Arbitrage Fund Growth.

Delhivery - New logistics policy likely to benefit entire logistics chain

Delhivery, the largest fully-integrated logistics player in India in terms of revenues, provides services including express parcel, e-commerce delivery and heavy goods delivery. Its network includes 122 gateways, 21 automated sort centres and 93 fulfilment centres.

In Q2FY23, its revenue was Rs 1,796 crore from services, up 22% YoY from Rs 1,474. Losses after tax in the same period narrowed to Rs 254 crore from Rs 643 crore in Q2FY22. As chances of profitability improve, there is growing interest in the stock from domestic institutions. Delhivery is also expected to be a beneficiary of the National Logistics Policy, which aims to expedite the process of approvals as well as improve warehousing capacity and a faster turnaround time for goods movement.

Fund Managers who bought shares of Delhivery

Shares of Delhivery were added to schemes by Neelesh Surana and Ankit Jain for Mirae Asset Emerging Bluechip Fund Growth, Manish Banthia and Sanakaran Naren for ICICI Prudential Equity & Debt Fund Growth, Neelesh Surana for Mirae Asset Tax Saver Fund -Regular Plan-Growth, and Sankaran Naren and Dharmesh Kakkad for ICICI Prudential Value Discovery Fund Growth.  

RBL Bank - Post-pandemic economic recovery drives profit growth

RBL Bank, a private sector bank with a nationwide network of 435 branches, offers various services including corporate and institutional banking, commercial banking, retail banking, agricultural development banking and financial market access. It reported a 5.5X YoY jump in net profit to Rs 200 crore in Q2FY23, aided by a 63% decline in provisions. There was a pick-up in loan growth, up 12% YoY and 4% QoQ to Rs 62,900 crore. Credit cards grew at a steady pace of 4% QoQ. The share of credit cards stands at 23% of total loans. RBL Bank has plans to launch its loan products for two-wheelers, used cars and gold in Q3FY23. Overall, the bank is targeting loan growth of 15% in FY23.

Fund Managers who bought shares of RBL Bank

Fund managers adding RBL to schemes include Manish Gunwani and Kinjal Desai for Nippon India Growth Fund - Growth, Samir Rachh and Kinjal Desai for Nippon India Small Cap Fund - Growth, and Sanjeev Sharma and Vasav Sahgal for Quant Small Cap Fund Growth as well as Quant Active Fund Growth.

Exide Industries - Expansion into EV battery space charges up the stock

Exide Industries is a market leader in storage batteries in India with 60% market share. Its segment includes automotive & industrial batteries, and it has a market share of 86% of the 2W market.

Exide Industries through its subsidiary Exide Energy Solutions Ltd (EESL) has executed a sales agreement in Bengaluru to set up a lithium-ion battery cell manufacturing facility. The plant will be used to set up a multi-gigawatt Li-ion battery cell manufacturing facility for the new-age electric mobility and stationary application business in India. The company expects that the first phase of Li-ion cell manufacturing will commence by H2FY25.

Fund Managers who bought shares of Exide Industries

Shares of Exide Industries were added by Pankaj Tibrewal and Arjun Khanna to Kotak Small Cap Growth, Harsha Upadhyaya to Kotak Tax Saver-Scheme- Growth, Harsha Upadhyaya and Arjun Khanna to Kotak Equity Opportunities Fund Growth, and Deepak Gupta and Kuber Mannadi to Invesco India Arbitrage Fund Growth schemes respectively.

Biocon - Global expansion will be instrumental in improving company’s health

Biocon is a biopharmaceutical company which develops therapy for chronic diseases such as autoimmune disease, diabetes and cancer. It has developed and introduced novel biologics, biosimilars, differentiated small molecules and affordable recombinant human insulin, and analogues into the market. 

Biocon via its subsidiary, Biocon Biologics, will acquire the global biosimilars portfolio of Viatris. It expects the deal with Viatris to close in the second half of the current financial year. With this deal, Biocon will gain Viatris’ global biosimilars business, whose revenues are estimated to be $1 billion next year, along with its portfolio of in-licensed biosimilar assets. It also announced the signing of a strategic out-license agreement with a Japanese pharmaceutical company, Yoshindo Inc., for the commercialisation of two of its pipeline biosimilar assets in the Japanese market. 

Fund Managers who bought shares of Biocon

Shares of Biocon were added by Neelesh Surana and Ankit Jain to Mirae Asset Emerging Bluechip Fund Growth, Ankit Jain to Mirae Asset Midcap Fund Regular Growth, Neelesh Surana to Mirae Asset Tax Saver Fund -Regular Plan-Growth, and Hiten Shah to Kotak Equity Arbitrage Fund Growth.

Bank of India - Another PSU bank that is on track to good performance

Bank of India is one of the largest Indian PSU banks with a strong domestic presence spanning 5,107 branches. The bank also has an international presence with a network of 23 branches across 18 countries.

Along with a host of other PSU banks, Bank of India also saw a turnaround in its performance in the past few quarters. In Q2FY23, it posted all-time high revenues of Rs 13,001 crore. It also reduced its net NPAs to 1.92% in Q2FY23, which is the lowest ever recorded.

Fund Managers who bought shares of Bank of India

Bank of India saw buying interest from Kunal Sangoi for Aditya Birla Sun Life Pure Value Fund Growth, Dhaval Gala and Mahesh Patil for Aditya Birla Sun Life PSU Equity Fund Regular Growth, Sanjeev Sharma and Vasav Sahgal for Quant Mid Cap Fund Growth, and Sandeep Tandon and Ankit Pande for Quant Value Fund Regular Growth.

PB Fintech - Rising revenues and narrowing losses build up investor confidence

PB Fintech is India’s largest online platform for lending and insurance, which go by the names of their websites, paisabazaar.com and policybazaar.com respectively.

In Q2FY23, the company’s consolidated loss narrowed to Rs 186.63 crore compared to Rs 204.44 crore in Q2FY22. Its revenue from operations for the period jumped 105.11% YoY to Rs 573.47 crore, led by strong growth in insurance premiums, credit disbursal and operating revenue.

Foreign brokerages have also raised their targets on this stock. Morgan Stanley has an overweight rating with a target price of Rs 620 per share. Initiating coverage on the stock, CLSA has a buy rating with a target price of Rs 600 per share, with the reasoning that the online distribution of insurance will grow at 10% CAGR and PB Fintech is one of the largest online platforms.

Fund Managers who bought shares of PB Fintech

Fund managers who added shares of PB Fintech to their schemes include Sailesh Raj Bhan and Kinjal Desai for Nippon India Multi Cap Fund - Growth, Atul Penkar and Dhaval Gala for Aditya Birla Sun Life Tax Relief 96 Pyt of Inc Dis cum Cap Wdrl, R Janakiraman and Sandeep Manam for Franklin India Prima Fund Growth, and Vinay Sharma and Kinjal Desai for Nippon India Banking & Financial Services Fund Growth.

PCBL (Philips Carbon Black) - Additional capacity coming onstream in the next few quarters

PCBL is a leading manufacturer of carbon black, which is used as a reinforcing material in tyres. It also derives about 10% of sales volume from speciality carbon black, a high-margin product and finds application in paints and plastics, among others.

The company is expanding its production lines with a greenfield project of 150 ktpa (kilo tonnes per annum) in Tamil Nadu. It is progressing well with major equipment orders placed and commissioning expected by Q3FY23. It has also initiated work on the brownfield expansion of 40 ktpa of speciality lines at Mundra, expected to be completed by Q4FY23. 

Fund Managers who bought shares of PCBL

PCBL saw buying in respective schemes from Sankaran Naren and Anand Sharma for ICICI Prudential Multicap Fund Growth, Rajat Chandak and D’mello for ICICI Prudential Flexicap Fund Regular Growth, Pratibh Agarwal and Dhimant Shah for ITI Small Cap Fund Regular Growth, and Mittul Kalawadia and Sharmila D’mello for ICICI Prudential Dividend Yield Equity Fund Growth.