HDFC Defence Fund increase stake in HAL, Mazagon Dock, Bharat Electronics and 7 others in September

HDFC Defence Fund, the only actively managed fund based on the defence sector, increased its stake in Hindustan Aeronautics, Mazagon Dock, Bharat Electronics and seven other stocks in the month of September, according to the monthly data release by ACE MF.

The fund added 1 lakh shares of Hindustan Aeronautics in its portfolio and had 31.05 lakh shares in September compared to 30.05 lakh shares in the previous month. The fund added 48,000 shares of Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders to its portfolio and had 17.25 lakh shares in its portfolio.

Around 20 lakh shares of Bharat Electronics were added to the portfolio, taking the total share count to 4.40 crore in September against 4.20 crore in the previous month.


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Among the other seven stocks where the fund increased its stake, the fund added the maximum number of shares of Bharat Forge. Nearly 3.96 lakh shares of Bharat Forge were added to the portfolio, taking the total share count to 77.02 lakh in September.

Nearly 1.50 lakh shares of Eicher Motors were added to the portfolio, and the fund had 7.50 lakh shares in its portfolio in September compared to 6 lakh shares in August. The defence sector fund added 1.04 lakh shares of Tata Motors to its portfolio and 29.04 lakh shares in September.

This defence sector-based fund added 50,000 shares of Bharat Dynamics, followed by 48,974 shares of BEML, 11,765 shares of Astra Microwave Products, and 8,000 shares of Bosch to its portfolio in the said period.

The exposure was reduced in Solar Industries India by selling 14,825 shares from the portfolio, and the fund had 6 lakh shares in its portfolio in September compared to 6.14 lakh shares in the previous month. In August, the fund also offloaded shares of Solar Industries from its portfolio. The fund sold 23,004 shares of Solar Industries from its August portfolio.

The exposure remained unchanged in 13 stocks such as Centum Electronics, Premier Explosives, Diffusion Engineers, MTAR Technologies, Cyient DLM, Aequs, Cochin Shipyard, Data Patterns (India), INDO-MIM, Sedemac Mechatronics, Ideaforge Technology, Power Mech Projects, and JNK India.

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

As a percentage of NAV, the fund had the highest allocation in Bharat Electronics of around 14.87%, followed by Bharat Forge and Hindustan Aeronautics, where the allocation was 12.91% and 12.61%, respectively.

In September, the fund had 24 stocks in its portfolio, which remained unchanged compared to the previous month. The portfolio of the fund was spread across seven sectors, with the highest allocation in capital goods of around 53.92% in August. The fund had a 22.74% allocation in automobile & ancillaries and 13.06% in the chemicals sector in the said period.

The fund had an AUM of Rs 11,493 crore as of September 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 has completed over three years in the market and has failed to outperform its benchmark over the longer horizon, whereas it has outperformed its benchmark in the shorter horizon. In the last three months, the fund delivered a 0.92% return compared to a loss of 1.61% by the benchmark.

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The fund delivered 18.48% in the last six months compared to 11.18% by the benchmark. It gave 20.17% in the last one year against 16.07% by the benchmark. In the last three years, the fund delivered a return of 34.36% against 41.55% by the benchmark. Since its inception, the fund has delivered a CAGR of 37.86%.

Around 43.49% was invested in largecaps, 23.71% was in mid caps, 30.71% in small caps and 2.09% 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.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

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