The second stress test results of mid-cap and small-cap mutual fund schemes showed improvement in liquidity position at some large funds, data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) showed.
Market participants said the improvement could have come on the back of fund managers actively focusing on stocks which are more liquid, as well as natural market process where average volume might have risen.
Of the 10 largest small-cap funds, 5 saw improvement in their liquidity position in March, while 3 of the 10 largest mid-cap funds also showed similar results.
The fund houses have been mandated to conduct stress tests for their mid-cap and small-cap funds after market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) raised concerns about excessive valuations in some segments of the market with weak liquidity.
As part of the stress test, fund houses need to determine the number of days it would take them to liquidate 25% and 50% of the corpus of small-cap and mid-cap funds in an adverse market scenario where investors were to rush to redeem their portfolio.
The results of the stress test for HDFC Mid-cap Opportunities Fund, which has AUM of nearly Rs 60,200 crore and is the largest mid-cap fund, showed that it would take 12 days for the fund to liquidate 25% of its position, unchanged from the stress test conducted in February.
Meanwhile, the second largest fund under mid-cap section – Kotak Emerging Equity Fund – saw improvement in liquidity position. The results showed that it would take the fund house 15 days to liquidate 25% of its corpus, down from 17 a month ago.
Among small-cap funds, Canara Robeco Small Cap Fund and Tata Small Cap Fund, saw marked improvement. The results showed that it would take Canara Robeco Small Cap Fund 4 days to liquidate 25% of its corpus, down from 7 days a month ago. Similarly, the stress test for Tata Small Cap Fund showed that it would take 15 days for it to liquidate 25% of its corpus, down from 18 days in February.
Shridatta Bhandwaldar, head of equities and fund manager at Canara Robeco AMC, said the improvement in the liquidity position in its small-cap fund is largely because of natural market process, and not active changes made by the fund house.