Category: Investment Picks

Here is a list of the stocks in my portfolio which constitute more than 1% of my investment portfolio. Interested readers may compare it with an earlier portfolio disclosure. I also provide the unrealized gains in terms of percentage.

Portfolio Disclosure as on Jan 11, 2018

Pls see below my portfolio (limited to those stocks which constitute at least 1.5% of the portfolio):

As before, for Canfin Homes, KRBL, Shilpa and Bajaj Finserv, the % gain is after including profits on sales carried out.

The only sales since the last portfolio disclosure have been in EClerx. This has primarily to do with the rise in the price due to Buyback announcement. I fully intend to purchase back the stock once the buyback record date is over.

There has been a sharp rise in the price of Oberoi Realty, IDFC Bank and IDFC. This accounts for the relative percentage increase. Similarly, there has been muted performance in Balkrishna Tyres. All of these are long term stocks, so the relative performance is not, per se, especially interesting.

Here is a new edition of my portfolio composition. The last two months have not been particularly kind to my portfolio performance, as can be seen in the next post. In fact, partly due to the fact that I was travelling, and partly due to procrastination due to my relative poor performance in September, I missed putting up my portfolio at the end of September.

But here I am, with my portfolio at the end of October 2014. As usual, this is not a complete disclosure of my portfolio. This list is only of those scripts which constitute more than 1% of my portfolio. Nevertheless, I am also disclosing in the text below if there were major changes in the rest of the portfolio.

The movement towards consolidation continues. However, this is also tempered by the fact that I have bought new scripts in the last two months. Nevertheless, the number of scripts which have at least a 1% contribution to my portfolio is 37 (compared with 33 at the beginning of September 2014), and together they constiture 71% of my portfolio. As before 32% of the portfolio was invested in the top 8 scripts.

What have I been buying in the last two months? And what did I sell?

Well, I continued to purchase IDFC, Oberoi Realty and IL&FS Investment Managers, averaging down as the stocks fell all of September, and most of October. It requires great guts or folly to keep buying in the face of negative outcomes from a stock price point of view, and sometime in November, I hope to have a post which will talk about these dilemnas.

I also purchased a significant quantity of L&T and TCS, again as they fell. In addition, I added a small quantity of Jaypee Infra, Sobha Developers and DLF, when they fell rather sharply because of a weak real estate environment and negative news flow.

In general, I have also resolved to improve the quality of my portfolio, from a cap goods, finance and realty bias to more quality names with better moats. To this end, I made significant purchases of Indian Hotels (Convertible Debentures) Akzo Nobel (which now is in the list of 1% stocks), United Spirits (which is almost there), and Dr Reddy’s Labs.

In terms of my older themes, I bought significant quantities of Reliance, Bayer CropScience, India Bulls Housing Finance, Gujarat Pipapav Port, and Vardhman Testiles.

What did I sell? Only RS Software at a time when the stock really shot up. At that price of 730 or so, the stock is more expensive than say EClerx, and EClerx has a superior track record of governance, disclosure, earnings, and dividends. I still own significant RS Software, and given my purchase price, I will evaluate my position only after a quarter or two.

In May, my largest purchase was Ajanta Pharma. Ajanta Pharma has been a favourite of the www.ValuePickr.com forum, because this was one stock which has had remarkable operational performance. I could never purchase Ajanta earlier, even though everyone at ValuePickr has it as one of their top picks. I used to think of it as expensive, so I gave it a miss, in favour of stocks like Avanti Feeds, Kaveri Seeds, PolyMedicure, Mayur Uniquoters, and VST Tillers, also from the ValuePickr stable. But the recent Pharma underperformance in the stock market, and Ajanta’s continued operational outperformance, meant that Ajanta again looked cheap, after its results in May, around a level of 1050. So now, this has the some decent weight in my portfolio. I expect gains to be muted, till Pharma becomes a market darling again. But it is in stocks which are not market darlings where bargains are to be found.

I also added more of RS Software, simply because there is great value in the stock. Currently, again, in line with the IT trend, it is not going anywhere. But I am patient. I also added some EClerx, because of a price drop. This is a company which I like very much, and I will keep adding, as the price keeps falling as the dollar keeps falling. I don’t think the market has even understood that EClerx performance this year will be unaffected by the dollar-rupee equation, since the entire revenue is hedged at higher dollar rates. It is next year, that performance will be adversely affected.

I also added some quantity of Akzo Nobel. I wish I had a chance to invest more, but the price ran up. Makers of Dulux paints, it will be a key beneficiary if the Auto and Housing sectors revive. I think this is a great company, and along with Clariant and Cummins, it will remain the core of my MNC portfolio.

I added some Munjal Showa, Muthoot Capital, Poddar Pigments and Kesar Terminals, all with dramatic gains after I purchased the stocks. All of them represent great value, and as the market runs out of value, I expect that all of them will see a dramatic PE rerating.
What about sells? I finally sold out of MCX, at a small profit. I still think it could potentially give a great return, but the uncertainties in terms of stake divestment and regulatory overhang are simply too high. Not worth it for a relatively risk averse investor, especially when the markets have some many other stocks going up.

I also sold out of Igarashi Motors, with a nearly 100% return. I still think this is a great company, but it is too export dependent, and performance will suffer with the dollar falling. I will return to it some other time.

I also sold some NTPC (bad call, it rose sharply after I sold), and BKT and Cummins. I sold small portions of my total holdings in all 3. NTPC, because in this market, it is not worth holding on to an annuity stock. I intend to get rid of it completely. BKT, because of dollar rupee concerns for a pure exporter, and Cummins-well, selling Cummins was a mistake. The only saving grace is that I sold a small portion of my portfolio holding.

I also sold JB Chemicals (invested in Ajanta instead) and Alkyl Amines Chemicals. Alkyl Amines Chemicals will suffer due to alcohol prices going up in this year. I also sold Balaji Amines because of the same reason. I also sold GMM Pfaudler, because I did not like certain related party transactions they carried out. Maybe it was a mistake to sell.