CLSA's Chris Wood cuts India overweight on LTCG worries

MUMBAI: Christopher Wood, Managing Director and Equity Strategist at CLSA on Wednesday said he has reduced overweight on India by a further three percentage points in the Asia Pacific ex-Japan relative-return portfolio.

In his widely read weekly newsletter Greed & Fear, Wood said he will allocate 1 percentage point weightage each to Hong Kong, Malaysia and Pakistan in the portfolio.

This comes after Wood last week in his newsletter dated February 8 said that India’s move to introduce long term capital gains tax on equity in the Union Budget for financial year 2018-19 is an 'unfortunate decision'.


Wood had called the move to introduce LTCG tax on equity as one of the reasons for reducing the overweight on India in the Asia Pacific ex-Japan portfolio by two percentage points in his February 1 note.

Meanwhile, Wood said that Pakistan is an interesting market and a major beneficiary of China’s ambitious “One Belt One Road” strategy.

"The increasingly close relations between China and Pakistan were also evident from an announcement by the State Bank of Pakistan on 2 January allowing both public and private sector companies to use renminbi for denominating foreign currency transactions for bilateral trade and investment," said Wood.