Stock investment opportunity
At a time when equity markets are showing a sign of revival after a bearish phase that threw many stocks to their multi-year lows, it would not be surprising for most investors to get tips from stock brokers on stocks to invest in. Since attractive valuations make it the right time to invest for the long term, many investors would be tempted to put money in stocks. This is not a bad move, especially when the stock recommendation you get is genuinely good. But before you make an investment, you should make sure the equity funds you hold don't already have a sizeable exposure to the stock you want to buy.

Finding fund's exposure
The best way to find out how much of a stock a mutual fund owns is by using the Value Research Who Owns What (WOW) tool. Accessible for free from the www.ValueResearchOnline.com homepage, the tool allows you to look for mutual-fund holdings in a particular company. Just enter the name of the stock in the search box and click on the 'Go' button. You will be presented with a list of funds that have exposure to that particular stock (see the screenshot below).

Avoiding getting overexposed
This list of funds includes information like the fund rating, percentage of net assets invested in that particular company, amount invested in it in crores and the number of shares. If the fund you own figures in the list given by the WOW tool, you probably won't need to add further to the stock so as to avoid getting overexposed to it. But if your fund doesn't hold the stock, then the tool can help you make an investment decision on it. You can even look at any of the funds in more detail by clicking on the fund name.

The Payoff: You make sure you have the right degree of exposure to a particular stock.