Which Stocks Are Mid-Cap Mutual Funds Buying, and Why?

SBI Midcap Fund increased its Swiggy shareholding by about 80% in September 2026. UTI Mid Cap Fund moved in the opposite direction, reducing its holding in the same company. Both manage mid-cap portfolios, yet they reached different decisions about how much Swiggy to own.

That disagreement makes portfolio disclosures useful. They show where professional investors are committing more money, where they are stepping back, and why a popular stock does not necessarily represent a shared conviction.

We compared the official August 31 and September 30 portfolios of eight schemes: SBI Midcap Fund, Nippon India Growth Mid Cap Fund, Axis Midcap Fund, Edelweiss Mid Cap Fund, ICICI Prudential Mid Cap Fund, Kotak Mid Cap Fund, Tata Mid Cap Fund and UTI Mid Cap Fund. Five companies offer particularly useful stories: Swiggy, MCX, PB Fintech, SRF and Fortis Healthcare.

The purchases below are verified changes in reported share quantities. The possible business explanations are our interpretation of company disclosures, rather than statements of the fund managers’ reasons.

Which Stocks Did Mid-Cap Mutual Funds Buy in September 2026?

The following are selected additions to existing holdings. They are not a ranking of every purchase made by the category.

Sources: Official AMC monthly portfolio disclosures as of August 31 and September 30, 2026. Calculations.

Notice that Nippon added Swiggy shares even though the stock’s portfolio weight slipped. ICICI Prudential’s PB Fintech position shows the same distinction more sharply: its shareholding increased while its allocation fell.

A portfolio weight depends on both the value of that investment and the size of the entire fund. Price movements and changes elsewhere in the portfolio can outweigh additional purchases. More shares establish accumulation; a higher allocation alone does not. Month-end disclosures also cannot reveal every purchase and sale within the month or the prices paid.

Why Might Mid-Cap Funds Be Investing in These Companies?

These five businesses earn money in different ways. Their common attraction is the possibility that growth will translate into stronger profits. The uncertainty lies in how much of that improvement will actually reach shareholders.

Swiggy: Can delivery growth become a more profitable business?

Swiggy connects customers with restaurants and provides quick-commerce services through Instamart. Its businesses earn revenue through combinations of commissions, service charges, advertising and related services. The value of orders placed on its platforms is therefore different from the revenue Swiggy recognises.

Before September’s purchases, its July 30 earnings release showed food-delivery gross order value rising 17.4% year on year to ₹9,490 crore in Q1 FY27. Food delivery generated ₹292 crore of adjusted EBITDA, a measure of operating earnings that excludes certain expenses.

Instamart offered a different proposition: faster growth, accompanied by substantial losses. Its order value grew 39.8% to ₹7,907 crore, while its quarterly contribution margin improved to approximately minus 0.2%. That measure tracks profitability after specified direct costs; it does not mean the whole business had become profitable.

The possible investment case is that higher order volumes allow delivery networks and stores to spread costs across more transactions. Competition, discounts and expansion spending can delay that outcome. A growing customer base matters only if the company can serve it on improving financial terms.

MCX: More trading can generate more fees

Multi Commodity Exchange of India, or MCX, operates a marketplace for commodity derivatives. It earns transaction fees from trading activity; it does not need to predict whether gold or crude oil prices will rise.

Its June-quarter consolidated operating income increased to ₹702 crore from ₹373.21 crore a year earlier. That provides a concrete explanation for investor interest: greater trading activity can produce more fee income, while technology and operating infrastructure do not necessarily require expenses to rise at the same pace.

However, that growth should not be extrapolated without checking the comparison. Operating income was below the preceding quarter’s ₹888.94 crore. A strong annual growth rate can coexist with a sequential slowdown.

Trading volumes, the mix of contracts, transaction charges and regulatory requirements all affect the earnings opportunity. The relevant question is whether activity remains strong enough to support the profits investors already expect.

PB Fintech: Growing renewals meet uncertainty over commissions

PB Fintech, the parent of Policybazaar and Paisabazaar, helps customers access insurance and credit products. It earns distribution and related income; insurance premiums collected through its platforms are not its own revenue.

Its August results showed Q1 FY27 operating revenue of ₹1,888 crore, up 40%, and profit after tax of ₹163 crore, up 92%. Core renewal and trail revenue over the preceding 12 months reached ₹1,003 crore, compared with ₹725 crore a year earlier.

Renewals help explain the potential attraction. A customer relationship can generate income beyond the initial sale, so the business does not have to acquire every customer again to earn every subsequent rupee.

But September introduced a material challenge. In its September 24 investor call, management discussed proposed insurance-distribution changes that could significantly affect general-insurance revenue. It outlined possible cost reductions and alternative service income, while acknowledging that the proposals and implementation details remained unsettled.

The investment debate therefore extends beyond customer growth: how much income will the company retain from each customer? The monthly holdings cannot establish whether any scheme purchased before or after that call.

SRF: Is the improvement in chemicals earnings sustainable?

SRF manufactures chemicals, packaging materials and technical textiles. Its chemicals business includes refrigerants and specialty chemicals used by other industries.

The company’s July results showed consolidated Q1 FY27 revenue of approximately ₹5,033 crore, up 32%, and profit of about ₹759 crore, up 76%. Chemicals revenue rose 26% to around ₹2,315 crore. These developments preceded the increase in SBI Midcap Fund’s holding.

SRF reported strong refrigerant and propellant demand, record production in films and foil, and a shift towards more valuable products. These developments can improve factory utilisation and margins. However, management also acknowledged support from inventory gains, which may not recur.

The same sensitivity works in reverse. Weaker selling prices, customer inventory reductions or slower utilisation of new capacity can hurt profitability. Investors need to distinguish a durable improvement in demand from a particularly favourable quarter.

Fortis Healthcare: Expansion needs to translate into profitable patient care

Fortis Healthcare earns money through hospitals, medical services and diagnostics. Its growth opportunity combines additional capacity with the ability to treat more patients and provide a wider range of care.

Its August release showed June-quarter consolidated revenue of ₹2,545 crore, up 17.5%. Occupied beds increased 16.7%, although the occupancy rate remained at 69%. The distinction matters: a hospital network can treat more patients because its capacity has expanded, even when the proportion of beds occupied stays unchanged.

Fortis also described plans to add approximately 1,800 beds through expansion at existing facilities over four to five years. These were plans, rather than beds already generating revenue.

Expansion can create a larger earnings base, but hospitals need investment, staff and time to build patient volumes. The company’s quoted 22.3% operating EBITDA margin excluded employee stock-option expenses; including them, it was 21.1%. Investors should keep that adjustment in view when comparing profitability.

Where Are Mid-Cap Fund Managers Disagreeing?

Swiggy’s additions were not universal. UTI Mid Cap Fund reduced its position from 70 lakh to 60 lakh shares, a 14.29% reduction. Axis and Kotak kept their Swiggy share quantities unchanged.

PB Fintech showed an even broader split. While ICICI Prudential, Axis and Tata added shares, Edelweiss reduced its holding by 2,11,422 shares, or 15.81%, and UTI reduced it by three lakh shares, or 14.29%. These are opposing portfolio decisions, not evidence that either group has already been proved correct.

Fortis offers another example: Axis reduced its shareholding by approximately 9.16%, while the three schemes in the purchase table added to theirs. A growing hospital business can interest one manager while another limits an existing position or finds a better use for capital.

Different valuations, starting allocations, liquidity needs and investment approaches can produce different decisions about the same company. These are possible explanations, not confirmed motives. Monthly portfolios reveal the outcome of those decisions, rather than the full reasoning behind them.

Are Mid-Cap Mutual Fund Inflows Supporting These Purchases?

The buying took place while investors continued adding money to mid-cap mutual funds.

Source: AMFI monthly reports for July, August and September 2026. Figures rounded to two decimals.

September’s net inflows increased approximately 12.1% from August, yet category assets fell 5.34%. Fresh investor money and falling portfolio values can occur together because market movements also change a fund’s assets.

Inflows give managers additional capital to deploy, but do not identify the source of funding for a particular purchase. Schemes can also buy using proceeds from other investments, retain cash or meet redemptions. The category-wide figures provide context for the eight-scheme sample, rather than a transaction-by-transaction explanation.

Does Mutual Fund Buying Mean a Stock Will Perform Better?

A mid-cap fund pools investors’ money and must invest at least 65% of its total assets in mid-cap equities and related instruments. It can have other permitted investments within its mandate. Consequently, a stock bought by a mid-cap scheme should not automatically be described as a mid-cap company.

Repeated buying across independent fund houses can identify a business worth investigating. It does not establish that the purchase price was attractive, that the managers share the same assumptions, or that future returns will be strong. A successful business can still disappoint investors if its share price already assumes faster growth.

Position size also changes the interpretation. Nearly doubling Edelweiss’s Swiggy shareholding still left it below 1% of the portfolio. A substantial percentage increase in shares need not represent a dominant investment.

For mutual fund investors, common holdings create another issue: overlap. Owning several schemes does not provide as much diversification as expected when they repeatedly own the same companies. Review the combined exposure before adding another fund based on an interesting purchase.

What Should Inve stors Watch Next?

Our take: Rather than focusing only on which stocks mutual funds are buying, investors should understand why fund managers may be interested in those companies and whether their businesses are improving.

For Swiggy, watch whether losses are reducing as orders grow. For MCX, track trading activity and the fees it earns. For PB Fintech, look at commission income and profitability. Similarly, monitor SRF's chemicals business profits and whether Fortis can turn its hospital expansion into higher earnings and cash flow.

Swiggy is a good example of why this matters. Its October 22 results showed that quick-commerce adjusted EBITDA losses increased from ₹778 crore in Q1 FY27 to ₹895 crore in Q2 FY27. This raises questions about how quickly the business can become profitable, although these results came after the September mutual fund purchases.

Investors should also check whether mutual funds continue buying these stocks over the next few months or reduce their holdings. The key lesson is simple: a mutual fund buying a stock does not automatically make it a good investment. What matters more is how the company performs after the investment and whether the fund continues to believe in its growth potential.