AMFI portfolio data vs shareholding pattern

Comparing AMFI portfolio data vs shareholding pattern data is the first thing anyone tracking Indian institutional ownership has to get straight, because the two answer different questions and are built by different filers on different clocks. One starts from a fund and lists its holdings. The other starts from a company and lists its holders. Neither is a substitute for the other, and stitching them together without accounting for the differences produces numbers that look reconciled and are not. It is not investment advice.

The two datasets, side by side

What each dataset answers well

AMFI portfolio data answers fund level questions. Which scheme held what, at what weight, on a given month end. Because the file is per scheme and carries percentage to NAV, it supports questions about concentration inside a fund and about how a specific scheme's holdings changed month over month. It is also the only one of the two that shows unlisted equity, since the prescribed portfolio format has an unlisted sub group.

The shareholding pattern answers company level questions. How much of a company sits with promoters, with foreign portfolio investors, with domestic institutions and with the public, at a quarter end. It is the record that shows the whole ownership base of a stock at once, which no fund side file can do.

The overlap between them, mutual fund ownership of listed Indian equity, is where both speak. From the fund side you see which scheme, at what weight in that scheme. From the company side you see the domestic institutional block as a share of the company. Those are different denominators, which is the single most common source of confusion when the two are put next to each other.

Why they do not reconcile exactly

Four reasons, all structural.

1. Different period ends. Monthly against quarterly. Only four month ends a year line up with quarter ends, and even then the filings are prepared by different parties.
2. Different units. Market value in lakhs of rupees and percentage to NAV on one side, percentage of total shares on the other.
3. Different scope. The fund side file covers every instrument the scheme holds, including debt, money market instruments, derivatives and unlisted equity. The company side file covers holders of that one company's shares.
4. Different identity keys. Fund side records identify a security by name and ISIN. Company side records arrive keyed on exchange tickers and company names that differ between NSE and BSE.

For the fund side format in detail, see how to read a mutual fund portfolio statement. For the company side, see how to read a shareholding pattern.

Using them together

The workable approach is to treat them as corroborating rather than reconciling. A fund side file showing several schemes adding the same stock across a month, and a company side file showing the domestic institutional block rising over the quarter that contains it, are two independent records pointing the same way. Neither proves the other, and a mismatch usually means a period boundary rather than an error.

Two related walkthroughs cover the practical side: how to find which mutual funds are buying a stock starts from the fund side, and how to check mutual fund portfolio overlap works across schemes. For the deadlines behind both, see mutual fund disclosure timelines.

Flock ingests both sides and keeps the period each figure belongs to attached to the row, so a monthly fund holding and a quarterly company figure never get averaged into one number. What the records say is public. What they mean is your own reading.