Showing their bullish stance on PSU stocks, the overseas investors tanked up their holding in at least two Maharatnas - BHEL and GAIL - and lowered the exposure to private sector companies such as Infosys and HDFC in the June quarter.

The Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), who are seen as the main market movers in the Indian equity space, bought over 56 lakh BHEL shares in the just-concluded June quarter for an estimated Rs 100 crore, taking their total holding in the PSU power gearmaker to 14.98 per cent - their highest level since March 2012.

In state-owned gas utility GAIL also, FIIs purchased nearly 70 lakh shares, worth about Rs 220 crore, to ramp up their stake to 16.34 per cent - the highest in about 6 years.

According to market experts, the government’s recent reform initiatives may have sparked a renewed interest in PSU stocks. In past few months, the government has sought to accelerate the pace of economic recovery through reforms after a decade-low growth rate in the last fiscal, 2012-13.

As per the latest shareholding pattern data released by the Sensex companies, the overseas investors have however pared their holdings in private sector bluechips like Infosys and HDFC.

The Bangalore-headquartered IT giant, which saw its co-founder Narayana Murthy return from retirement to assume the post of executive chairman, saw FII stake falling to 39.55 per cent at the end of June quarter, from 40.52 per cent in the March quarter. It is estimated that the wary FIIs offloaded Infosys stocks worth nearly Rs 1,400 crore in June quarter.

Brokers said FIIs becoming a little negative on Infosys front may be on a company-specific issue as the IT services firm is struggling to break free from a period of anaemic growth.

In HDFC, FIIs marginally pared their stake to 73.64 per cent in June quarter, from 73.67 per cent in March quarter.

The shareholding data of Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) mostly present a stance opposite to the one adopted by the FIIs.

In GAIL, DIIs cut their stake to 22.25 per cent from 22.89 per cent during the March-June quarter, while they also appear to have turned slightly bearish on BHEL with a marginal decline in their holding from 12.42 per cent to 12.24 per cent. On the other hand, DIIs ramped up their holding in Infosys to 18.28 per cent, from 17.51 per cent.

In HDFC, the DIIs marginally lowered their stake to 13.03 per cent, from 13.22 per cent at the end of March quarter.

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