Funds shuffle scrips as Nifty floats

The shift in S&P CNX Nifty, the favourite index of numerous investment schemes both at home and abroad, to a new system of computation is likely to get the fund managers busy this week.

The index, which is a benchmark for at least 73 equity diversified schemes of Indian mutual funds, is going for a major change in its composition.

The National Stock Exchange’s flagship index will shift to free-float capitalisation method from June 26.

Under the method, the weightage of each of the 50 component stocks in the index will be proportionate to the amount of free float.

Free float is the number of shares of a company in public hands —- stock that is “floating free”, that which is not with the promoters.

Globally, most indices are moving to this system as it is perceived to be more representative of market action.

Experts say, with the new system coming into vogue, funds would need to adjust their portfolios accordingly.

“Managers who are tracking the Nifty closely, may have to make allocation changes. People who are mirroring the index should make bigger changes,” said Deepak Mohoni, MD, www.trendwatchindia.com.

Benchmark indices are important to two broad kinds of investment schemes: ones that track market indexes (index funds) and funds whose managers choose securities to buy and sell (actively managed funds).

While index funds mirror the index components, active funds operate on a relative return basis, wherein performance of the fund is judged by comparing it to the performance of the benchmark. 

Some of the action is already visible in the prices. Stocks which are bound to lose weightage post this reorganisation, especially the PSUs, are out of favour.

“A significant portion of the adjustment has already played out and one can see the result of that in the fall of NTPC and ONGC and the outperformance of L&T and private banks,” said Anand Shah, head of equities at Canara Robeco MF.

While Reliance Industries will retain its position as the top-weighted stock due to its high free-float component (50%), ONGC and NTPC are likely to lose weightage.

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has the second-highest weightage (8% )in the Nifty under the Total M-cap regime. This is bound to come down to 3.5%.

Similarly, the index weight of National Thermal Power Corporation will drop from 6% to 1.9%.

The reverse will also be true as some stocks such as Infosys will have a high free-float gain at the expense of these.

The weightage of Infosys, currently at 3.77% in the Nifty, will increase to 7%. So an index fund will appropriately double its holding of Infy shares.

ICICI Bank will increase its weightage from 2.96% to 6.45%, while Larsen & Toubro goes from 3.27% to 6.41%.

Some absolute-return products based on the index and long-term players like insurance companies who tend to mirror the index would go for shuffling of portfolios, said fund managers.

“Arbitrage funds and structured products, which track the Nifty, would also see some changes made. The majority of the action would take place on June 26 for index funds,” said Gopal Agarwal, head of equity at Mirae Asset Global Investments.

Jayesh Shroff, fund manager at SBI Mutual Fund, said, insurance companies and the funds managed by them are more likely to be affected by such a change. 

“As far as they are concerned, it would already have started,” said Shroff.

The effect on the broader will be very short-term, feel experts.

A Balasubramanian, CIO of Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund, said there might be some minor changes in the portfolios of schemes. “A fund manager will change his scheme’s holdings on the basis of valuation rather than events such as these,” Balasubramanian believes.