Investments by mutual fund houses in software shares surged by 55 per cent to nearly Rs 36,000 crore at the end of May on account of good return given by such stocks.

Equity fund managers’ fund allocation in software or IT stocks stood at Rs 22,986 crore in May 2014.

According to market experts, equity fund managers raised their bet on banking, software, auto and pharma stocks last month as these sectors have given smart return to investors.

Mutual fund is an investment vehicle that is made up of a pool of funds collected from many investors for the purpose of investing in securities such as stocks, bonds, money market instruments and similar assets.

As per data available with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), overall deployment of equity funds in IT stocks stood at Rs 35,750 crore in May compared with Rs 34,100 crore in the previous month.

Besides, exposure to IT stocks was at 9.45 per cent of equity AUM in May against 9.43 per cent in the preceding month.

The benchmark BSE Sensex witnessed a rise of 3 per cent last month, while the IT index rose by 5 per cent during the period under review.

IT was the second-most preferred sector with fund managers after banks, with an exposure of Rs 79,215 crore.

Besides, pharma witnessed a deployment of Rs 29,246 crore, followed by auto (Rs 26,215 crore) and finance (Rs 22,925 crore).