Which stocks did Radhakishan Damani, India's richest investor, bet on in Q1

Radhakishan Damani, Indian billionaire investor and the founder of Avenue Supermarts
 
As markets tided over a rough patch in the January to March period, India’s richest investor Radhakishan Damani’s made some strategic changes in his portfolio. At the end of the March quarter, the cumulative holding of Damani, the promoter of Avenue Supermarts that runs and operates retail format stores D-Mart, was worth Rs1.53 trillion. However, over the last quarter, it has declined 16.14 percent from Rs1.83 trillion in the October-December period.
 
During the quarter, Damani’s top holding by percentage was in Avenue Supermarts, where, as a promoter, he holds 67.51 percent. However, he had reduced his stake in Avenue Supermarts to 67.51 percent from 67.53 percent—the share price of which fell 16 percent during the three-month period. This was followed by VST Industries, India Cements, Advani Hotels and Resorts and Aptech. Damani holds 30.71 percent in VST Industries and 20.78 percent in India Cements.
 

Damani invests in stock markets through entities like Bright Star Investments, Bottle Palm Private Beneficiary Trust, Derive Trading & Resorts, Gulmohar Private Beneficiary Trust, Karnikar Private Beneficiary Trust, Mountain Glory Private Beneficiary Trust, Royal Palm Private Beneficiary Trust, Gopikishan Shivkishan Damani, Kirandevi Gopikishan Damani and his wife Shrikantadevi Damani.
 
In value terms, Damani has raised his stake in 3M India, Trent and Aptech. The share prices of those stocks climbed 1-5 percent in the period.
 
Other than Avenue Supermarts, Damani has reduced his holding in United Breweries to 1.19 percent from 1.21 percent. Share price of United Breweries fell 16.20 percent during the period.
 
The analysis is based on data provided by Prime Database on shareholding patterns filed by 1,838 of the total 1,864 companies listed on NSE (main board) for the quarter ending March 31, 2023. The analysis includes portfolios of individual investors whose combined holding across multiple companies is more than Rs250 crore as on March 2023 and may include promoters as part of public shareholdings in few cases.
 
According to markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), any individual investor with more than Rs2 lakh investment in a single stock is defined as an HNI in India. There were 3.1 lakh HNIs in India in the financial year ending March 2023, up from 2.77 lakh in FY22, which has been steadily increasing. There were just 1.24 HNIs in fiscal year 2019, implying a massive 150 percent rise in just five years.  

Also read: Great expectations: Are greed, overconfidence getting the better of HNI stock calls?
 
HNI share by value in all companies listed on the NSE fell to 1.88 percent at the end of March from 1.89 percent in the previous quarter and 2.21 percent in the year-ago period. In value terms, HNI holding was at Rs4.74 trillion by end of March, a decrease of 9.24 percent over the last quarter.   
 
The share of DIIs with retail and HNI investors in companies listed on NSE reached yet another all-time high of 25.72 percent as on March 31, 2023, from 24.44 percent as on December 31, 2022, as per primeinfobase.com.
 
In the January to March quarter, benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty had declined nearly 3-4 percent while smaller stocks had taken a heavy beating. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were heavy sellers of Indian stocks in the three months: They sold shares worth Rs35,048 crore from oil, gas & consumable fuels, and financial services sectors during the quarter while investing Rs12,994 crore in the services and capital goods sectors. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were net buyers of stocks worth Rs83,200 crore in January to March.