World’s largest sovereign wealth fund raises India bets

Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund with a portfolio value in excess of $1.2 trillion, raised its India bets last year despite the volatility in Indian equities.

The number of Indian companies it was invested in rose to 550 in CY24 from 449 the previous year. The value of the fund’s India equity investments stood at $30.8 billion at the end of last year, a 28 per cent rise over the previous year.

Its Indian holdings as a percentage of its total equity portfolio rose by 30 basis points year-on-year in calendar 2024 to 2.47 per cent, data showed.

The increase in India weight came in a year that saw foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) selling India shares worth over ₹3 lakh crore in the cash market even as the country’s benchmark index Nifty 50 rose 8.7 per cent.

The fund’s top Indian holdings include HDFC Bank, valued at over $2 billion, followed by Reliance Industries, with a market value of over $1.5 billion. ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel and Infosys are the other holdings with a value in excess of $1 billion. The fund’s ownership in the two banks has risen 33 bps and 32 bps over a year, respectively.

Financials on top

Among sectors, financials occupies the top spot with a market value of $9.2 billion, followed by consumer ($5.6 billion) and technology ($3.5 billion) companies.

The value of the fund’s China equity investments stood at $40.69 billion at the end of December. India has the second largest weight in the MSCI EM index with a weightage of 19.4 per cent compared with 27.8 per cent for China.

India’s equity market is on track to double in size within the next five to six years, reaching a projected market capitalisation of $10 trillion, according to experts.

Equities forms 71.4 per cent of the fund’s total investment. Its equity portfolio returned 12.5 per cent in the first half of 2024.

The equity investments consists of ownership shares in about 9,000 companies worldwide. On average, the fund owns 1.5 percent of all listed companies.