New Delhi, May 13: SBI, ICICI Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and Punjab National Bank hogged the limelight in the Rs 510 crore bluechip scheme of the Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund with maximum exposure going towards the banking sector. The fund, in its report for April, said it had added the stocks of fast moving consumer goods giant Hindustan Lever and the cement major Gujarat Ambuja to its portfolio, seeing their potential.

The equity exposure across the sectors, however, fell to 88.7 per cent during April, due to fresh inflows, which would be invested in a phased manner, it said. The total exposure of the bluechip scheme in the banking sector stood at near 18 per cent with an investment of around Rs 91 crore with SBI cornering a maximum investment of almost Rs 49 crore.

Justifying Gujarat Ambuja's inclusion into bluechip fund, Templeton said the company had been aggressively cutting costs and realisations should improve in the days to come. "The over capacity in the cement industry is slowly being absorbed and the increased infrastructure spending by the government coupled with a rise in housing starts augurs well for the sector," the fund said.

Oil and gas sector followed the banking industry with a total exposure of over 14 per cent by investing more than Rs 72 crore in the two disinvestment slated companies -- Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation.

Information technology sector stood third in exposure in the bluechip scheme with an exposure of around nine per cent at an investment of over Rs 45 crore in HCL Tech and Infosys. Bureau Report