Latest news with #RajeevThakkar
Economic Times
5 days ago
- Business
- Economic Times
Rs 58,000 crore cash lying idle in 5 mutual fund schemes. Are stocks too expensive to buy?
A growing pile of cash is making more noise than stock picks in some mutual fund houses. Five mutual fund schemes now hold Rs 58,442 crore in cash, accounting for a staggering 30% of the entire mutual fund industry's cash reserves. ADVERTISEMENT Out of a Rs 2 lakh crore industry-wide cash corpus, these five are sitting on the largest war chest. Parag Parikh Flexi Cap Fund tops the list with the highest cash pile of Rs 22,360 crore. SBI Contra Fund follows with Rs 10,028 crore, HDFC Flexi Cap with Rs 10,013 crore, Motilal Oswal Midcap with Rs 9,479 crore, and HDFC Mid-Cap Opportunities with Rs 6,562 crore, according to data from Elara Securities. That's not all. About 25% of the entire mutual fund industry's cash is concentrated in just four schemes, and half of it is held by only 18. What's more telling is that the cash hoarding has lasted over a year for many of them with experts saying it isn't a tactical timeout but a strategic positioning reflecting caution on current market valuations, especially in the mid and smallcap segments. 'Most of these schemes have maintained elevated cash levels for more than a year. Importantly, 25% of the incremental inflow over past 9-months have come in 12 schemes which have not got totally deployed in the market, raising cash levels,' said Elara's Sunil Jain. Also Read | Promoter, PE & VC selling crosses Rs 40,000 crore in 2 weeks: Red flag for Nifty bulls? The hesitation to buy in the secondary market despite a roaring rally hints at something deeper. ADVERTISEMENT 'The persistence of high cash balances over a long period—despite ongoing market strength—suggests that most of these fund managers are not likely to aggressively chase secondary market rallies. Rather than deploying cash in the secondary market, managers are channeling liquidity into the primary market. A large chunk of this paper supply has come from promoter divestments and PE exits, not new capital formation. This signals distribution, not expansion,' he schemes continue to show comfort in deploying funds with overall cash levels falling to Rs 16,500 crore from Rs 19,120 crore in April. But midcap schemes are showing signs of withdrawal. Cash levels in midcap funds have surged to 7.3%, the highest since 2020, fuelled by massive inflows into Motilal Oswal Midcap Fund. The total cash here is now Rs 29,900 crore, up from Rs 27,700 crore in April. ADVERTISEMENT Smallcap schemes have only slightly trimmed their cash stockpiles. At Rs 25,900 crore, they're just a notch below last month's Rs 25,250 crore. Overall, the mutual fund industry's active equity schemes collectively held Rs 2 lakh crore in cash in May, slightly down from Rs 2.06 lakh crore in April. Parag Parikh Mutual Fund leads in cash as a percentage of AUM—holding 21.3% in cash. Motilal Oswal is not far behind at 19.9%, according to Elara. ADVERTISEMENT For Parag Parikh, taking cash calls isn't new. The fund house's CIO Rajeev Thakkar, in an earlier note, had compared this approach to playing Test cricket—not swinging wildly, but waiting patiently for the right ball. For him, holding cash is less about timing and more about readiness—for the right price, the right stock, and the right pitch.'Holding some amount of cash gives us the opportunity to deploy whenever a stock trades at attractive valuations to deploy. Investment opportunities do not come everyday across all companies and one has to wait to deploy money well,' Thakkar had said, adding that one shouldn't perceive it as market timing but rather waiting to deploy at the right valuation. ADVERTISEMENT For fund houses like Quantum AMC, which has around 12% cash in its portfolio, the elevated cash is not a tactical bet, but a result of a valuation-driven discipline.'Given that markets, in aggregate, are perceived as expensive with fewer attractive opportunities, our cash levels naturally become slightly elevated. We are disciplined about adhering to our investment philosophy, which prioritizes value and long-term potential. When we find that the opportunities aligning with our rigorous selection criteria are not readily available at attractive valuations, we prefer to hold cash rather than deploy capital into overvalued assets. This approach ensures that we are positioned to capitalize on opportunities when they do emerge, rather than being forced to invest simply to deploy capital,' Chirag Mehta, CIO, Quantum AMC, told ETMarkets. Also Read | Buy Eternal & Swiggy, sell Nykaa & BSE: Latest investing mantra of mutual funds The firm sees opportunity in largecaps but remains selective in smallcaps, waiting for reasonably priced Mutual Fund maintains less than 5% cash across portfolios and relies more on internal allocation shifts between large, mid, and smallcap segments to manage valuation risk.'We don't want to mix asset allocation with stock selection. Our job is stock selection and not asset allocation. Asset allocation is how much money should I put into equities versus how much cash do I hold. That is typically best done by a distributor who knows the client's cashflow profile,' explained Trideep Bhattacharya, CIO – Equities at Edelweiss Mutual Direct's Pankaj Pandey also suggests against making large cash calls. "Generally, we do not suggest holding a proportion of cash because we have seen historically it is a very difficult call to take. For holding cash, you need luck to get prices at lower levels and most importantly, courage to deploy cash during such times,' he question remains whether these fund managers are displaying prudent risk management or missing out on continued market gains while sitting on the sidelines with their massive cash reserves. (Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times) (You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channel)
Time of India
5 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Rs 58,000 crore cash lying idle in 5 mutual fund schemes. Are stocks too expensive to buy?
A growing pile of cash is making more noise than stock picks in some mutual fund houses. Five mutual fund schemes now hold Rs 58,442 crore in cash, accounting for a staggering 30% of the entire mutual fund industry's cash reserves. Out of a Rs 2 lakh crore industry-wide cash corpus, these five are sitting on the largest war chest. Parag Parikh Flexi Cap Fund tops the list with the highest cash pile of Rs 22,360 crore. SBI Contra Fund follows with Rs 10,028 crore, HDFC Flexi Cap with Rs 10,013 crore, Motilal Oswal Midcap with Rs 9,479 crore, and HDFC Mid-Cap Opportunities with Rs 6,562 crore, according to data from Elara Securities. That's not all. About 25% of the entire mutual fund industry's cash is concentrated in just four schemes, and half of it is held by only 18. What's more telling is that the cash hoarding has lasted over a year for many of them with experts saying it isn't a tactical timeout but a strategic positioning reflecting caution on current market valuations , especially in the mid and smallcap segments. 'Most of these schemes have maintained elevated cash levels for more than a year. Importantly, 25% of the incremental inflow over past 9-months have come in 12 schemes which have not got totally deployed in the market, raising cash levels,' said Elara's Sunil Jain. Live Events Also Read | Promoter, PE & VC selling crosses Rs 40,000 crore in 2 weeks: Red flag for Nifty bulls? The hesitation to buy in the secondary market despite a roaring rally hints at something deeper. 'The persistence of high cash balances over a long period—despite ongoing market strength—suggests that most of these fund managers are not likely to aggressively chase secondary market rallies. Rather than deploying cash in the secondary market, managers are channeling liquidity into the primary market. A large chunk of this paper supply has come from promoter divestments and PE exits, not new capital formation. This signals distribution, not expansion,' he said. Largecap schemes continue to show comfort in deploying funds with overall cash levels falling to Rs 16,500 crore from Rs 19,120 crore in April. But midcap schemes are showing signs of withdrawal. Cash levels in midcap funds have surged to 7.3%, the highest since 2020, fuelled by massive inflows into Motilal Oswal Midcap Fund. The total cash here is now Rs 29,900 crore, up from Rs 27,700 crore in April. Smallcap schemes have only slightly trimmed their cash stockpiles. At Rs 25,900 crore, they're just a notch below last month's Rs 25,250 crore. Overall, the mutual fund industry's active equity schemes collectively held Rs 2 lakh crore in cash in May, slightly down from Rs 2.06 lakh crore in April. Parag Parikh Mutual Fund leads in cash as a percentage of AUM—holding 21.3% in cash. Motilal Oswal is not far behind at 19.9%, according to Elara. For Parag Parikh, taking cash calls isn't new. The fund house's CIO Rajeev Thakkar, in an earlier note, had compared this approach to playing Test cricket—not swinging wildly, but waiting patiently for the right ball. For him, holding cash is less about timing and more about readiness—for the right price, the right stock, and the right pitch. 'Holding some amount of cash gives us the opportunity to deploy whenever a stock trades at attractive valuations to deploy. Investment opportunities do not come everyday across all companies and one has to wait to deploy money well,' Thakkar had said, adding that one shouldn't perceive it as market timing but rather waiting to deploy at the right valuation. For fund houses like Quantum AMC , which has around 12% cash in its portfolio, the elevated cash is not a tactical bet, but a result of a valuation-driven discipline. 'Given that markets, in aggregate, are perceived as expensive with fewer attractive opportunities, our cash levels naturally become slightly elevated. We are disciplined about adhering to our investment philosophy, which prioritizes value and long-term potential. When we find that the opportunities aligning with our rigorous selection criteria are not readily available at attractive valuations, we prefer to hold cash rather than deploy capital into overvalued assets. This approach ensures that we are positioned to capitalize on opportunities when they do emerge, rather than being forced to invest simply to deploy capital,' Chirag Mehta, CIO, Quantum AMC, told ETMarkets. Also Read | Buy Eternal & Swiggy, sell Nykaa & BSE: Latest investing mantra of mutual funds The firm sees opportunity in largecaps but remains selective in smallcaps, waiting for reasonably priced entries. Edelweiss Mutual Fund maintains less than 5% cash across portfolios and relies more on internal allocation shifts between large, mid, and smallcap segments to manage valuation risk. 'We don't want to mix asset allocation with stock selection. Our job is stock selection and not asset allocation. Asset allocation is how much money should I put into equities versus how much cash do I hold. That is typically best done by a distributor who knows the client's cashflow profile,' explained Trideep Bhattacharya, CIO – Equities at Edelweiss Mutual Fund. ICICI Direct's Pankaj Pandey also suggests against making large cash calls. "Generally, we do not suggest holding a proportion of cash because we have seen historically it is a very difficult call to take. For holding cash, you need luck to get prices at lower levels and most importantly, courage to deploy cash during such times,' he said. The question remains whether these fund managers are displaying prudent risk management or missing out on continued market gains while sitting on the sidelines with their massive cash reserves. ( Disclaimer : Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)
Time of India
10-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Parag Parikh Flexi Cap Fund adds Bharti Airtel and Nesco to its portfolio in May
Parag Parikh Flexi Cap Fund, the largest flexi cap fund by assets under management, added two new stocks to its portfolio in May — Bharti Airtel and Nesco. The fund purchased around 1.17 crore shares of Bharti Airtel and 89,469 shares of Nesco during the month. The fund did not exit any stock in the same period. It increased its exposure in eight stocks, including Zydus Lifesciences , Power Grid Corporation of India , Mahindra & Mahindra, ITC, HDFC Bank , EID Parry India , Coal India , and Cipla. Also Read | Quant Small Cap Fund increases stake in Jio Financial Services, NCC and reduces in Aadhar Housing Finance Best MF to invest Looking for the best mutual funds to invest? Here are our recommendations. View Details » by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Play War Thunder now for free War Thunder Play Now Undo Around 1.52 crore shares of Power Grid Corporation of India were added to the portfolio, taking the total holding to 20.88 crore shares in May, up from 19.36 crore in April. The fund also added 73.57 lakh shares of Coal India, followed by 39.99 lakh shares of ITC during the same period. The total number of Mahindra & Mahindra shares in the portfolio rose to 1.22 crore in May from 1.10 crore in April, with 11.91 lakh shares added. Additionally, 8.87 lakh shares of Cipla and 4.80 lakh shares of HDFC Bank were added during the month. Live Events The fund also included 3.22 lakh shares of Zydus Lifesciences and 2.54 lakh shares of EID Parry India in its portfolio in May. Exposure in 14 stocks remained unchanged, including Axis Bank, Bajaj Holdings & Investment, Central Depository Services (India), ICICI Bank , ICRA, Indian Energy Exchange , Infosys, Maharashtra Scooters , Kotak Mahindra Bank , Maruti Suzuki India , Swaraj Engines , and Multi Commodity Exchange of India. The fund held 28 stocks in its portfolio in May, up from 26 in April. Its assets under management (AUM) stood at Rs 1.03 lakh crore in May, compared to Rs 98,541.28 crore as of April 30, 2025. Also Read | Parag Parikh Flexicap Fund crosses Rs 1 lakh crore AUM: Neil Parikh Launched on May 24, 2013, the scheme is managed by Rajeev Thakkar, Raunak Onkar, Raj Mehta, Rukun Tarachandani, and Mansi Kariya. It is benchmarked against the NIFTY 500 (TRI), and the minimum investment amount for new purchases, additional purchases, and monthly SIPs is Rs 1,000. Last month, the Chairman and CEO of PPFAS Mutual Fund , Neil Parikh, announced on social media that the Parag Parikh Flexi Cap Fund had crossed Rs 1 lakh crore in assets under management (AUM). Parikh called it the first actively managed scheme in India to reach this milestone. He wrote on social media platform X, 'I don't normally talk about AUM or have any AUM-based targets in our organization, but today is special… PPFAS Flexi Cap crossed Rs 1 lakh crore AUM today. I believe it is the first actively managed scheme to do so in India.'
Economic Times
10-06-2025
- Business
- Economic Times
Parag Parikh Flexi Cap Fund adds Bharti Airtel and Nesco to its portfolio in May
The fund exited no stocks but raised exposure in eight existing holdings, including Power Grid, Mahindra & Mahindra, ITC, HDFC Bank, Coal India, Zydus Lifesciences, Cipla, and EID Parry. Parag Parikh Flexi Cap Fund, the largest flexi cap fund by assets under management, added two new stocks to its portfolio in May — Bharti Airtel and Nesco. The fund purchased around 1.17 crore shares of Bharti Airtel and 89,469 shares of Nesco during the month. The fund did not exit any stock in the same period. It increased its exposure in eight stocks, including Zydus Lifesciences, Power Grid Corporation of India, Mahindra & Mahindra, ITC, HDFC Bank, EID Parry India, Coal India, and Cipla. Also Read | Quant Small Cap Fund increases stake in Jio Financial Services, NCC and reduces in Aadhar Housing Finance Around 1.52 crore shares of Power Grid Corporation of India were added to the portfolio, taking the total holding to 20.88 crore shares in May, up from 19.36 crore in April. The fund also added 73.57 lakh shares of Coal India, followed by 39.99 lakh shares of ITC during the same total number of Mahindra & Mahindra shares in the portfolio rose to 1.22 crore in May from 1.10 crore in April, with 11.91 lakh shares added. Additionally, 8.87 lakh shares of Cipla and 4.80 lakh shares of HDFC Bank were added during the month. The fund also included 3.22 lakh shares of Zydus Lifesciences and 2.54 lakh shares of EID Parry India in its portfolio in May. Exposure in 14 stocks remained unchanged, including Axis Bank, Bajaj Holdings & Investment, Central Depository Services (India), ICICI Bank, ICRA, Indian Energy Exchange, Infosys, Maharashtra Scooters, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Maruti Suzuki India, Swaraj Engines, and Multi Commodity Exchange of India. The fund held 28 stocks in its portfolio in May, up from 26 in April. Its assets under management (AUM) stood at Rs 1.03 lakh crore in May, compared to Rs 98,541.28 crore as of April 30, 2025. Also Read | Parag Parikh Flexicap Fund crosses Rs 1 lakh crore AUM: Neil Parikh Launched on May 24, 2013, the scheme is managed by Rajeev Thakkar, Raunak Onkar, Raj Mehta, Rukun Tarachandani, and Mansi Kariya. It is benchmarked against the NIFTY 500 (TRI), and the minimum investment amount for new purchases, additional purchases, and monthly SIPs is Rs 1,000. Last month, the Chairman and CEO of PPFAS Mutual Fund, Neil Parikh, announced on social media that the Parag Parikh Flexi Cap Fund had crossed Rs 1 lakh crore in assets under management (AUM). Parikh called it the first actively managed scheme in India to reach this milestone. He wrote on social media platform X, 'I don't normally talk about AUM or have any AUM-based targets in our organization, but today is special… PPFAS Flexi Cap crossed Rs 1 lakh crore AUM today. I believe it is the first actively managed scheme to do so in India.'
Mint
01-06-2025
- Business
- Mint
Parag Parikh Mutual Fund's Rajeev Thakkar turns to debt: What's driving the shift in his personal portfolio?
Rajeev Thakkar, chief investment officer of PPFAS Mutual Fund (Parag Parikh Financial Advisory Services), oversees assets exceeding ₹1 trillion. Thakkar, 52, has built a solid track record over the years, with the Parag Parikh Flexicap Fund becoming the largest fund in its category. Incidentally, this is also the fund that Thakkar uses for his own equity investments. In this interaction with Mint for the 'Guru Portfolio series', Thakkar shares how he manages his personal investment portfolio and why his equity allocation has reduced. How has your personal investing and portfolio evolved over the past five years? Over the past five years, my portfolio has seen a shift, especially in the last one to two years. We've been cautious as a fund house, largely due to elevated valuations in the market, and this cautious approach has reflected in my personal investments as well. Most of my investments over the past 18–24 months have been in hybrid and arbitrage funds. Given my historically high exposure to equities and the fact that now am in my 50s, I have started rebalancing by allocating more to hybrids and arbitrage products. Also Read: What makes Mirae Asset's Swarup Mohanty paranoid about his retirement corpus Why have you taken a more cautious investment approach recently? Given that valuations are elevated, while stocks may deliver slightly better returns than bonds, I have opted for a more balanced approach. Within hybrids, I have allocated to a dynamic asset allocation fund. It also offers a long-term capital gains tax benefit: if the holding period is more than 24 months, capital gains are taxed at a flat 12.5%. What does your asset allocation look like? On debt allocation, it has increased significantly. It was 4-5% around 2020, but has now grown to around 12-13%. If I include the contingency and retirement funds, the fixed income component moves closer to 20%. Overall, there's been a clear rise in allocations toward hybrids and debt instruments. Gold has largely been in the form of jewellery. I haven't had explicit exposure to gold, but on auspicious days, some buying and some gifting happen for ceremonial reasons. The balance 80% is still in equities. Also Read: How Capitalmind's Deepak Shenoy covered shortfall in his son's education goalWhat did your portfolio look like five years ago? Can you give some context? Five years ago, debt was very limited. That period— around March to May 2020—coincided with the covid lows. Valuations were extremely attractive then, and even some of my debt allocation was tactically moved into equities. At that time, the portfolio was heavily tilted towards equities. How heavy was the equity allocation back then? It was quite high—equity allocation could have been around 95%. How has your portfolio performed? It has delivered 14% returns over the past year and 29% annualized returns over a five-year period. What is the current split between large-cap, mid-cap, and small-cap stocks in your equity portfolio? As a fund manager, I have publicly stated that valuations in the small- and mid-cap segments have generally been more elevated compared to large-cap companies. Because of this, the exposure to mid- and small-cap stocks in my equity portfolio, which is through the flexicap fund, is currently in the single digits (4%). The bulk of the fund's portfolio—60%—is invested in large-cap stocks. About 10% is in international stocks, and the balance is in cash. Also Read: Inside Edelweiss MF CEO Radhika Gupta's plan to build over ₹10-crore—and how she's investing to get there How has your international exposure changed? This allocation has been coming down over the years due to the RBI-imposed limits on mutual fund investments abroad. Recently, Parag Parikh Financial Services (PPFAS) set up a subsidiary in the Gift City, which will offer both inbound funds, as well as outbound funds for Indian residents to invest in global stocks. So, hopefully, I will be able to use that and invest some additional money internationally. What has been your approach to insurance? Now that my savings have built up adequately, there's no longer a need to continue term insurance coverage. I am in the last three years of my term cover. Even my health insurance coverage is slightly lower than the typical amount. Given this scenario, I've been building an emergency corpus—particularly for health or unexpected needs in post-retirement period—again through hybrids and arbitrage funds. How much coverage do you want to build for this post-retirement emergency fund? I have reached the basic target to meet my post-retirement lifestlyle needs. But I also need to build a post-retirement contingency fund as my personal medical cover is small in size. I have employer cover, but that would not come in handy in post-retirement period. For this emergency fund, which I am planning for health and other contingencies post-retirement, my goal is to accumulate a corpus of around ₹10 crore. How much is your family involved in investment decisions? My wife is also a finance professional working in the mutual fund industry, but is on the risk-management side. My family is very well aware of what is happening in my investment portfolio, but any investment decisions are largely left to me. My daughter, who is now 20, has also become a keen investor and manages a small portfolio of her own. Since a young age, she has been a regular at our annual general meetings with unitholders. She is an avid reader and also watches investment-related content we put out on YouTube regularly. She has already been to Berkshire Hathaway meetings multiple times, where she has had the opportunity to listen to investing greats such as Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger.
