Five Indian Stocks Hedge Funds Love the Most

#2. ICICI Bank Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:IBN)

– Investors with long positions: 22

– Aggregate value of investors’ holdings: $390.39 Million

The smart money sentiment towards ICICI Bank Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:IBN) declined significantly during the final quarter of 2015, with the number of funds bullish on ICICI dropping to 22 from a much higher number of 34 quarter-on-quarter. ICICI Bank is one of the top private lenders in India and investors have been worried that the private-sector bank may have too many bad loans on its balance sheet. As a result, the bank has seen its market capitalization drop by a massive 35% in the past 52 weeks. Even so, the ADS of ICICI Bank has appreciated by 20% over the past three months. Just recently, the bank revealed that net non-performing assets were $2.0 billion at the end of March, up from $1.5 billion at the end of December. The increase in non-performing assets was said to reflect the sustained challenges in the operating and recovery environment, as well as the Reserve Bank of India’s objective of early and conservative recognition of stress and provisioning. Prem Watsa’s Fairfax Financial Holdings acquired a new stake of 1.50 million ADSs of ICICI Bank Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:IBN) during the first quarter of 2016.

#1. HDFC Bank Limited (ADR) (NYSE:HDB)

– Investors with long positions: 23

– Aggregate value of investors’ holdings: $1.42 Billion

HDFC Bank Limited (ADR) (NYSE:HDB) was the most popular Indian company listed on U.S. stock exchanges among the hedge funds monitored by Insider Monkey at the end of 2015. The number of hedge funds with stakes in HDFC Bank declined to 23 from 29 during the March quarter, whereas the overall value of those stakes increased to $1.42 billion from $1.33 billion quarter-on-quarter. HDFC Bank, the third-largest company by market cap in India, was one of the first private sector banks in India and has expanded at a high pace since commencing operations more than two decades ago. The bank added a number of 506 branches during fiscal 2016 that ended March 2016, with 256 of them being located in semi-urban and rural locations. HDFC has a network of 4,520 branches and 12,000 ATMs in 2,587 cities across the country as of March 31, as compared to 4,014 branches and 11,766 ATMs recorded at the end of March 2015. HDFC’s ADS is up 2% since the start of 2016. Richard Driehaus’ Driehaus Capital has 1.45 million ADSs in its equity portfolio at the end of March.

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