Top wealth creators of the decade losing allure Mumbai: Investor interest in an investment theme that has been the harbinger of optimism in Indian stocks for almost a decade might be running its course. The country’s top fund managers are increasingly baulking at shares of companies that benefited from India’s famed consumption story as growing pressures on profitability are raising questions about seemingly impregnable stock valuations.Top consumer stocks such as Hindustan Unilever, Nestle, Asian Paints, Titan and Avenue Supermarts among others have been missing in the monthly shopping lists of mutual funds for most of 2021. This is a sharp contrast to the situation earlier when fund managers could ill afford to keep these names out of the portfolio despite pricey valuations because these were among the handful of companies that were growing at a strong pace.The tide has turned. With sectors such as metals, and cement making a strong comeback after almost 13 years of underperformance, thanks to the global upswing in commodity prices, consumer stocks have lost their allure.82727166“One of the reasons for the premium for consumer stocks was lack of earnings growth in many other sectors,” said Prashant Jain, chief investment officer, HDFC Mutual Fund. “With earnings growth becoming more broad-based, this could result in moderation of valuations for this sector.”Rising commodity prices could begin squeezing the profitability of consumer companies.