To understand how mutual funds bought and sold stocks in the month of October, it is essential to look at the gross churn. The AUM of mutual funds as of October 2025 stands at ₹79.9 trillion. However, out of that, active equity funds have an AUM of ₹35.17 trillion. However, there are also equities held by hybrid funds and by index funds and index ETFs. If these are added, then total equity exposure of Indian mutual funds rises to ₹49.9 trillion. However, the AUM does not explain the churn. 

That is explained by the gross flows and the gross redemptions, the difference of which is the net flows. For instance, the net inflows into active equity fund in October 2025 stood at ₹24,690 crore. This comprises of gross flows of ₹63,611 crore redemptions of ₹38,921 crore.  It is this gross figure of ₹1,02,532 crore that determines the equity churn. Of course, the actual churn would be based on overall equity exposure, but this gives us an approximate idea. We now turn to the churn by MFs across large cap, mid-cap and small cap stocks. 

As per the SEBI definition, large caps refer to the 50 biggest listed stocks by market cap. Let us start with large cap stocks where mutual funds added significant positions in October 2025. The mutual funds added 1,393 Lakh shares of Adani Power, 328 Lakh Shares of Punjab National Bank (PNB), 189 Lakh shares of Indus Towers, 120 Lakh shares of Shriram Finance, 89 Lakh shares of IRFC, 71 Lakh shares of Hindustan Zinc (HZL), 55 Lakh shares of Adani Green Energy, 54 lakh shares of Godrej Consumer Products, and 28 lakh shares of Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL). In addition, mutual funds also picked small quantities of Lodha Developers. On the buy side, the focus was more on infrastructure and financials. 

What about mutual fund selling in large caps in October 2025? The selling was largely focused on lucrative PSU stories. There was heavy selling of 487 Lakh shares in Coal India, 374 Lakh shares of Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, 354 lakh shares of GAIL India, 200 Lakh shares of BPCL, 34 lakh shares each of Zydus Lifesciences, 24 Lakh shares of Bajaj Housing Finance, 13 Lakh shares of Siemens Energy, and 10 Lakh shares of Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders. In addition, mutual funds sold smaller quantities in Torrent Pharmaceuticals and ABB India. Most of these stocks being sold have given stellar returns in last few years. 

Mid-caps are defined by SEBI as those companies ranked 101st to 250th on the market cap scale. Let us first look at mid-cap buying in October 2025. Overall, mutual funds added 1,682 Lakh shares of Yes Bank, 415 Lakh shares of Aditya Birla Capital, 175 Lakh shares of IndusInd Bank, 162 Lakh shares of Bank of Maharashtra, 105 lakh shares of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, 82 Lakh shares of HUDCO, 64 Lakh shares of Laurus Labs, 54 Lakh shares of BSE Ltd, and 28 Lakh shares of UCO Bank. Mutual funds also bought smaller quantities of Godrej Industries Ltd in October 2025. 

How about major mid-cap selling candidates in October 2025? Mutual Funds sold 651 Lakh shares of Suzlon, 133 Lakh shares of NALCO, 98 Lakh shares of One97 Communications (Paytm), 77 Lakh shares of Exide Industries, 70 Lakh shares of Dabur India, and 47 lakh shares of SJVN Ltd. In addition, October 2025 also saw smaller quantities of selling in ACC Ltd, Kaynes Technology India, Tata Elxsi, and Authum Investments. While mid-cap buying was focused on financial stocks, the sell-side was more a bottom-up stock-specific story. 

Let us finally look at small caps in October 2025, which are companies ranked beyond 250 in the market cap rankings. For October 2025, mutual funds added 1,026 Lakh shares of Ujjivan Small Finance Bank (SFB), 408 Lakh shares of Aditya Birla Lifestyle Brands, 65 Lakh shares of NMDC Steel, 35 Lakh shares of Thyrocare Technologies, 24 Lakh shares of Quess Corp, 18 Lakh shares of Indegene Ltd, 13 Lakh shares of Hindustan Copper, and 11 Lakh shares of Hikal Ltd. In addition, MFs purchased smaller quantities of HBL Engineering and Cemindia Engineering during the month of October 2025.  

What about MF selling in small caps in October 2025? Mutual funds sold 51 Lakh shares of JTL Industries, 44 Lakh shares of Sai Silks (Kalamandir), 22 Lakh shares of Sterling & Wilson Renewable Energy, 17 Lakh shares each of Indraprastha Medical & Jana Small Finance Bank, and 9 Lakh shares of Inox Gren Energy. In addition, October 2025 also saw mutual funds selling smaller quantities in Fino Payment Bank, Anupam Rasayan, Tanla Platforms, and RPG Life Sciences. 

While large cap action and even mid-cap action in October 2025 showed some sectoral trends, the action in small caps was largely bottom-up and stock-specific. However, in the small cap space, there was some action visible in the small finance bank (SFB) space.