Eternal Jumps Back In Favour, Emerges Top MF Buy in August

India’s mutual funds have rekindled their appetite for Eternal, the Zomato parent, making it the top buying destination in August after a brief pause in July. According to a report by Nuvama Alternative and Quantitative Research, mutual fund houses poured nearly ₹7,200 crore into the counter last month.

The reversal came after July’s profit-booking frenzy, when mutual funds cut exposure to the stock by ₹1,700 crore, following its strong first-quarter earnings and lofty valuation. For context, Eternal is among the costliest stock in the Nifty, trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of nearly 150 times.

Now back in favour, Eternal has climbed into the top ten holdings of several leading mutual funds, including Invesco, Franklin Templeton, HSBC, Kotak, Motilal Oswal, JM Financial and Axis.

Among the largest institutional holders, SBI Mutual Fund leads with investments worth ₹9,908 crore, followed by Kotak Mahindra MF (₹7,746 crore) and Motilal Oswal MF (₹6,253 crore). HDFC, UTI, Nippon India, ICICI Prudential, Aditya Birla Sun Life, Franklin Templeton and Canara Robeco also hold significant stakes.

The renewed confidence comes on the back of Eternal’s blistering rally as the stock surged 108% in 2023, another 124% in 2024, and has already added more than 16% in 2025 despite its choppy performance. Analysts remain overwhelmingly bullish, with 29 “buy” calls and only four “sell” ratings, up from 24 “buy” tags at the start of the year.

Brokerages point towards Eternal’s execution strength and industry-leading growth prospects as reasons for the optimism. Nuvama expects momentum to hold for at least two more years, pointing to Zomato’s expanding customer base and rising order frequency as drivers of sustained growth. “Zomato’s path to profitability could be quicker than anticipated with improving contribution margins,” Nuvama analysts said.

Nomura, too, sees Zomato’s core food delivery business settling into a disciplined two-player market with steady annual growth of 15–20%. In quick commerce, the brokerage expects new category additions to keep expanding Eternal’s growth runway.