HDFC Equity exits TCS and Wipro, adds Suzlon

Country's largest equity fund, HDFC Equity Fund, exited software firms Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro in August as part of a strategy to cut exposure to the sector, data from fund tracker ICRA Online Ltd showed.

The HDFC Equity Fund had allocated more than a fifth of its assets to tech stocks at the end of December, but has cut exposure consistently since then.

The fund held 5.57 per cent of its Rs 4,656 crore assets in two tech stocks - Infosys Technologies and CMC - at August-end.

Many Indian funds have been reducing stakes in tech firms on concern a strong rupee, that has risen more than 9 per cent against the dollar in 2007, and the turmoil in the US subprime mortgage sector would hurt profits of the export dependent companies.

The BSE IT Index has fallen nearly 16 percent this year against about 12 per cent rise of the benchmark BSE index.

In a Reuters poll of 11 Indian fund houses between Aug 20-23, nearly 64 per cent of the respondents were planning to maintain or cut exposure to the battered sector in the next three months.

The fund, up 18 per cent in 2007, also exited Shoppers Stop, Sun Pharma Advanced Research, and DLF, and cut down on building and metal stocks in August.

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It increased exposure to basic engineering to almost a fourth at August-end, ICRA data showed, adding wind turbine maker Suzlon Energy.

In line with other diversified equity funds, HDFC has raised exposure to the sector in 2007 to 24.15 per cent at August-end from 16.27 per cent in December.

Three of its top-five holdings are basic engineering stocks. It added realty firm Puravankara Projects and raised exposure to July entrant and top cigarette maker ITC in August.