S Naren-managed ICICI Prudential Contra Fund unveils first portfolio since NFO; 34 stocks held, HDFC Bank top bet

The second largest asset management company, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, has unveiled the maiden portfolio of its contra fund - ICICI Prudential Contra Fund, which follows a contrarian approach that seeks mispriced opportunities in out of-favour segments, with the aim of capturing outperformance when cycles reverse. This marks the fund’s first update since its NFO.

The new fund offer of the fund was open for subscription from September 28 to October 12. The inception date of this contra fund is October 15, 2026.

According to the data disclosed by the fund house, the contra fund managed by star fund manager Sankaran Naren holds nearly 34 stocks in its October portfolio and HDFC Bank was the top bet.


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As per the portfolio data, based on the percentage of net assets, the fund had the highest allocation of around 9.36% in HDFC Bank. This was followed by Natco Pharma where the allocation was 6.59%.

The contra fund had an allocation of 4.88% and 4.67% in Britannia Industries and Avenue Supermarts respectively. The allocation in Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles was around 4.12%, followed by 3.84% in Pidilite Industries and 3.34% in ITC.

The allocation in Swiggy was around 2.17% and nearly 1.91% each in Reliance Industries and PB Fintech. The allocation in TeamLease Services and Timken India was 0.88% and 0.81% respectively.

The fund had an allocation of 0.23% in Aadhar Housing Finance and 0.001% in Tata Capital in the month of October.

Based on the number of shares, the fund had the maximum number of shares of Motherson Sumi Wiring India of around 98.17 lakh followed by 24.56 lakh shares of Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles.

There were 19.89 lakh shares of ITC and 19.48 lakh shares of Swiggy. The fund had 2.60 lakh shares of Reliance Industries. The fund had 29,967 shares of Shree Cement and 366 shares of Tata Capital.

The portfolio of this contra fund is spread across 13 sectors with highest allocation in retailing of around 12.17%. This was followed by 11.79% in automobiles & ancillaries and 11.21% in the healthcare sector.

The fund holds 42.35% in large caps, 17.89% in mid caps, 24.27% in small caps, and 15.5% in others.

The scheme takes a non-consensus, research-driven approach to identifying such opportunities and is aimed at investors with a long-term horizon who are willing to wait for the sentiment to reverse, according to a press release by the fund house.

The scheme shall follow a top-down approach and/or bottom up approach. The scheme may follow a diversified approach & have flexibility to invest across market capitalization. However, at times the scheme may have higher concentration towards a particular market capitalization, sector or stocks.

The scheme’s contra strategy can rest on any single factor or a combination of factors, organised under the VCTS framework.

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The fund house said that in terms of portfolio construction, the aim is to adopt a CLOUD approach which stands for Calculate: Research and calculate before taking the call, Leverage: Be careful with leveraged stocks, Ownership: Low institutional ownership can be a positive, Upside: Clear upside potential, and Disruption: Caution around Disruption risk.

The scheme will be managed by Sankaran Naren, along with Dharmesh Kakkad, Sakshat Goel, Gaurav Chikane. The performance will be benchmarked against Nifty 500 TRI. The minimum investment amount is Rs 1,000 (& in multiples of Re 1).

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