HDFC Defence Fund adds HAL, Mazagon Dock, Bharat Electronics and 5 others in August

HDFC Defence Fund, the only actively managed fund based on defence sector, added Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL), Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders, Bharat Electronics and five other stocks in its portfolio in August, according to the monthly data on ACE MF.

Around 1.54 lakh shares of HAL were added to the portfolio and the fund had 30.05 lakh shares in its portfolio in August compared to 28.50 lakh shares in July. The fund added 1.77 lakh shares of Mazagon Dock in the portfolio taking the total number of shares to 16.77 lakh in August.

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Nearly 15 lakh shares of Bharat Electronics were added to the portfolio and the fund had 4.20 crore shares in its portfolio in August compared to 4.05 crore shares in July month.

Among the other five stocks, the fund added the maximum number of shares of Tata Motors. Around 7 lakh shares of Tata Motors were added to the portfolio and the fund had 28 lakh shares in its portfolio in August.

The defence sector fund added 3.95 lakh shares of Astra Microwave Products in the portfolio taking the total count to 45.11 lakh in August. This was followed by adding 88,822 shares of Bharat Forge, 49,183 shares of Eicher Motors and 12,224 shares of Bosch.

Cyient DLM and Solar Industries India were the two stocks in which the fund reduced its stake. Around 11.57 lakh shares of Cyient DLM were sold out from the portfolio and the fund had 40 lakh shares in its portfolio in August against 51.57 lakh shares in the previous month.

It sold 23,004 shares of Solar Industries from the portfolio and had 6.14 lakh shares in its portfolio in August.

The fund did not add any new stock nor it made complete exit from any stock in the month of August.

The exposure remained unchanged in 13 stocks in August which included some names such as BEML, Centum Electronics, Premier Explosives, Diffusion Engineers, MTAR Technologies, Bharat Dynamics, Aequs, Data Patterns (India), INDO-MIM, Sedemac Mechatronics, Ideaforge Technology, Power Mech Projects, and JNK India.

As a percentage of NAV, the fund had the highest allocation in Bharat Electronics of around 15.17%, followed by Bharat Forge and Hindustan Aeronautics where the allocation was 13.40% and 12.57% respectively.

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In August, the fund had 24 stocks in its portfolio which remained unchanged compared to previous month. The portfolio of the fund was spread across seven sectors with highest allocation in capital goods of around 53.25% in August.

The fund had 22.71% allocation in automobile & ancillaries and 13.46% in chemicals sector in the said time period.

The fund had an AUM of Rs 10,709 crore as of July 31, 2026. Launched on June 2, 2023, the performance is benchmarked against Nifty India Defence - TRI and is managed by Rahul Baijal and Priya Ranjan.

The fund had the highest allocation of 50.64% in capital goods sectors, followed by automobiles & ancillaries where the allocation was 22.77% and 13.84% respectively.

The fund has completed over three years in the market and has failed to outperform its benchmark in the longer horizon whereas has outperformed its benchmark in the shorter horizon. In the last three months, the fund delivered 14.47% return compared to 11.53% by the benchmark.

The fund delivered 23.66% in the last six months compared to 17.47% by the benchmark. It gave 35.44% in the last one year against 33.33% by the benchmark. In the last three years, the fund delivered a return of 36.04% against 43.90% by the benchmark. Since its inception, the fund has delivered a CAGR of 41.91%.

Around 43.82% was invested in the large caps, 25.04% was in mid caps, 29.01% in small caps and 2.14% in others.

HDFC Defence Fund is an open-ended equity scheme investing in Defence & allied sector companies. The investment objective of the fund is to provide long-term capital appreciation by investing predominantly in equity and equity related securities of Defence & allied sector companies.

The fund is suitable for investors who are seeking to generate long-term capital appreciation/income and want investment predominantly in equity and equity related instruments of defence and allied sector companies.

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