Chris Wood of Jefferies picks GMR Airports, trims stake in 3 bank stocks

Global brokerage firm Jefferies' Global Head of Equity Strategy Chris Wood has added GMR Airports Infrastructure to his India long-only portfolio while reducing stakes in ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank.

"An investment in GMR Airports Infrastructure will be introduced in the India long-only portfolio with a 4% weighting. This will be paid for by reducing the investments in ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank by one percentage point each and by shaving the investment in Axis Bank by two percentage points," Wood wrote in his GREED & fear newsletter.

In his Asia ex-Japan long-only portfolio, an investment in GMR Airports Infrastructure will also be introduced by removing the investment in HDFC Bank, he said.


Shares of GMR Airports, which have more than doubled in the last one year, were trading 2% higher at Rs 93.46 on BSE today.

Last week, Wood announced picking a stake in PolicyBazaar with a 4% weighting by reducing holding in ICICI Bank, State Bank of India (SBI), REC, and Coal India.

Stocks in Chris Wood's India long-only equity portfolio include ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, SBI, AU Small Finance Bank, REC, RIL, JSW Energy, Godrej Properties, DLF, Macrotech Developers, L&T, Adani Ports, Thermax, and Zomato.

While shaving the weightage of PSU stocks in his long-only India portfolio, Wood had said there will be a temptation for investors to tilt their portfolio more towards consumption plays, relative to investment plays, on the view that the new government will focus more on populist measures whereas a feature of the past ten years has been a fiscal deficit driven by spending on physical infrastructure rather than transfer payments. The obvious possibility here is measures to revive the rural economy, he said.

Also read | Andhra & Naidu stocks beating PSU & Modi stocks hands down with Rs 20,000 crore boom

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