Mumbai, May 14 (IANS): As equity-linked mutual fund schemes witnessed a decline in net inflows in April, Punjab National Bank (PNB), DLF and Tata Steel were among the top bought stocks in large cap by mutual funds.

Inflows into equity funds declined to Rs 3,400 crore compared to Rs 9,100 crore in March but the inflow trend remain, said a report by ICICI Direct.

SIP flows are now back at pre-Covid levels with April inflow at Rs 8,590 crore, it said.

The holding of mutual funds in PNB stood at 12.76 crore shares in April-end with a valuation of Rs 445 crore. In March, the MF holding in PNB was 10.14 crore shares worth Rs 372 crore.

Similarly, MFs held 5.06 crore shares in DLF by the end of April, up from 4.52 crore in March. However, the market value of the shares held declined last month to Rs 1,250 crore, from Rs 1,296 crore in March.

Tata Steel was the third top bought stocks among the large cap stocks with MF holding at 14.79 crore shares in April with a market value of Rs 15,290 crore. MFs held 13.57 crore shares in the company with a market value of Rs 11,014 crore in March.

The top sold large cap stocks by MFs were Indus Towers, Vedanta and JSW Steel, with holdings of Rs 179 crore, Rs 2,859 crore and Rs 3,252 crore respectively in April.

In midcap, L&T Finance Holdings, Vodafone Idea and Glenmark Pharmaceuticals were the top bought stocks by MFs, while the top sells were GMR Infrastructure, Escorts and Prestige Estate Projects.