Exposure to telecom, media, cement and construction sectors showed a sharp surge in the mutual fund portfolios in 2006, while chemicals, services, and banking stocks failed to attract much interest. Food and beverages, and consumer durables turned out to be bitter pills for MFs as the weightage to these sectors dropped by 20 per cent and 10 per cent respectively.

Meanwhile, engineering overtook information technology to become the most invested sector in 2006, while cement and construction barged ahead to the third slot from its sixth position held last year.

	Dec '05		Nov '06
Sector	Value (cr)	Wght	Value (cr)	Wght	Change	% Change
Engineering	6,890	12%	12,547	13%	5,657	82%
Cement & Const	4,008	7%	9,227	10%	5,219	130%
Information Tech	7,086	12%	11,066	12%	3,980	56%
Telecom	1,288	2%	4,665	5%	3,376	262%
Oil & Gas	4,012	7%	6,577	7%	2,565	64%
Automotive	5,277	9%	7,655	8%	2,378	45%
Conglomerates	1,717	3%	3,861	4%	2,144	125%
FMCG	2,016	3%	4,007	4%	1,991	99%
Manufacturing	3,912	7%	5,626	6%	1,715	44%
Media	1,037	2%	2,641	3%	1,604	155%
Banking & Finance	6,498	11%	7,955	8%	1,457	22%
Pharmaceuticals	3,191	5%	4,600	5%	1,409	44%
Metals & Mining	2,980	5%	4,279	4%	1,299	44%
Utilities / Power	813	1%	1,533	2%	720	89%
Miscellaneous	1,541	3%	2,233	2%	691	45%
Services	1,492	3%	1,696	2%	204	14%
Chemicals	3,193	5%	3,361	4%	168	5%
Consumer Durables	213	0%	192	0%	-21	-10%
Food & Beverages	2,245	4%	1,795	2%	-450	-20%
Total	59,409	100%	95,515	100%	36,106	1294%

Engineering and cement and construction stocks were the top favourites with fund managers in 2006. A Moneycontrol study reveals that investments in engineering sector stood at Rs 12,547 crore in November 2006 as against Rs 6,890 crore (Rs 68.9 billion) in December 2005 as eight MFs hiked their exposure to this sector, while 11 funds marginally slashed their exposure to the sector. DBS Chola, Deutsche, and JM Financial [Get Quote] MF were most bullish on the sector.

Investments in cement and construction sector stood at Rs 9,227 crore in November 2006 as against Rs 4,008 crore in December 2005 as 17 MFs hiked their exposure to this sector, while Deutsche and Principal PNB MF marginally slashed their exposure to the sector. Birla and DSP ML MF were most bullish on the sector.

Telecom, and media sectors too were among the percentage gainers with net MF investments up by more than 100 per cent over the year. Net investments in the IT, oil and gas, power, and FMCG sectors showed a growth in the range of 50-100 per cent, while auto, pharma, metals, and manufacturing sectors showed a growth in the range of 25-50 per cent.

Meanwhile, food & beverages, and consumer durables witnessed a decline in weightage. Exposure to food & beverages sector dropped 20% from Rs 2,245 crore in December 2005 to Rs 1,795 crore as 10 MFs slashed their exposure to this sector, while eight funds hiked their exposure to it. Investments in the consumer durable sector dived by 10% from Rs 213 crore to Rs 192 crore.

Meanwhile ICICI Bank, Tata Motors, and Satyam witnessed the steepest fall in this list. Banking major ICICI Bank crashed from its sixth place to 20th position, auto major Tata Motors and IT giant Satyam slipped from the seventh and eighth position to the 15th and 16th position respectively.
 
Reliance Communications, Zee Telefilms, and Hindustan Lever entered the top 20 list, while HCL Technologies, PNB, and United Phosphorous moved out of this list.