chris wood: How India bull Chris Wood’s portfolio is performing amid wild swings

An evergreen India bull, Christopher Wood of Jefferies, who is bullish on the domestic demand in the country, has a 40 per cent weightage to Indian stocks in his Asia ex-Japan long-only portfolio. His long-only portfolio for India, which was launched last year, has outperformed the Nifty but gave negative returns.

Detailing the performance of his portfolios, Wood, Global Head of Equities at Jefferies wrote in his weekly GREED & fear newsletter that his Asia ex-Japan long-only portfolio declined by 14% on a total-return basis last quarter compared with an 8.9% decline in the MSCI AC Asia ex-Japan Index. It is down 21% in 1H22 compared with a 16.1% decline in the MSCI AC Asia ex-Japan benchmark index.

He said the underperformance was primarily driven in the last month of the quarter when commodity prices and commodity-related plays corrected on growing demand destruction concerns.

“The portfolio remains primarily geared to the domestic demand story in India. The portfolio is 40% invested in India, with a 27% exposure to China and another 11% allocated to Taiwan and Korean technology. There is also a 24% allocation to energy, resources and gold. This latter allocation in commodity-related plays will be maintained,” Wood said.

In the meantime, Wood’s long-only portfolio for India has completed one year. The portfolio outperformed last quarter declining by 11.8% in US dollar terms on a total-return basis, compared with a 13.5% decline in the MSCI India benchmark. It was also a relative outperformer in the first half of 2022, declining by 13.5% compared with a 15.1% decline in MSCI India. It is also outperforming since its inception, declining by 1.4% compared with a 4% decline in the MSCI Index and a 3.8% decline in the Nifty.

Some of his Indian stock picks include , , Life Insurance, General Insurance, , and .