Here’s what top D-St investor Radhakishan Damani bought and sold in December quarter

Billionaire investor Radhakishan Damani hiked stake in at least two smallcap companies during the September-December quarter when the benchmark BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty indices jumped nearly 25%.

Latest data available with stock exchanges showed that Damani and his family held 21.14% stake in India Cements as of December 31, up from 20.40% in the previous quarter ended September 30. On the other hand, he also raised his stake in VST Industries to 5.08% from 4.97% during the same period.

Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors have also increased their stake in India Cements to 12.42% from 11.95%. However, their stake in VST inched lower to 3.25% from 3.57% earlier.

Shares of India Cements have soared 98% in a year to Rs 168.75 on January 19, 2021 against Rs 85.05 on January 20, 2020. VST Industries has declined nearly 18% to Rs 3,726, while the Sensex has advanced 19% to 49,398 during the same period.

With a net worth of over Rs 1.20 lakh crore (as of January 21), Damani is the top individual investor in the country, according to Trendlyne. He is also the founder and promoter of retail chain D-Mart.

On the other hand, he kept his stake same in companies including Avenue Supermarts, Foods & Inns, Mangalam Organics, BF Utilities, Prozone Intu Properties and Astra Microwave Products. However, his holding in Simplex Infrastructure declined below less than 1% as his name was not among key shareholders as of December 31. He had more than 2% stake in the company as of September 30.

Unabated inflows by foreign institutional investors, hopes of Covid-19 vaccine and liquidity measures taken by the central banks and government-aided the domestic equity market during the quarter gone by. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap index gained 22% and 21.73%, respectively, for the quarter ended December 31.