Jefferies’ Chris Wood rejigs India portfolio: Adds Ambuja Cements, Ixigo, Lemon Tree Hotels; exits Reliance, Axis Bank

Christopher Wood of Jefferies has reshuffled GREED & Fear’s India long-only portfolio, adding Ambuja Cements — an Adani Group company — Le Travenues Technology (Ixigo), and Lemon Tree Hotels, assigning a 4 per cent weighting to each.

In contrast, Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries and banking major Axis Bank have been removed from the portfolio. Additionally, the weights of ICICI Bank, REC, and JSW Energy have each been trimmed by one percentage point.

HDFC Bank, SBI, PolicyBazaar, DLF, Adani Ports, Eternal, Bharti Airtel, IndiGo, Mahindra and Mahindra, GMR Airports, and Manappuram Finance are among the stocks of Jefferies' India long-only equity portfolio.

Indian stock market going through a healthy consolidation

According to Chris Wood, the Indian stock market is witnessing a healthy consolidation. The domestic market may continue to trade sideways for the rest of the year as mutual fund inflows continue to absorb equity supply.

However, the Indian stock market may rally in the new calendar year on pickup in growth triggered by GST cuts and monetary easing by he Reserve Bank of India. This implies there is still a chance that a 10-15 per cent return target could be too modest.

"GREED & fear’s assumption is that there is more scope for a rally in the new calendar year on evidence of a growing pickup in growth triggered by the easing measures, be they GST cuts and simplification or Reserve Bank of India easing. That means there is still a chance that that 10-15% return target proves to be too modest," Wood said in his weekly GREED & fear report of 18 September 2025.

Chris Wood believes India remains the best structural growth story in global equities for the longer term and the mid and small-cap segment remains the most interesting part despite higher valuations.

"Longer term India remains the best structural growth story in global equities. But a key part of that story will be deepening equity issuance, which is why probably the most interesting part of the Indian market is now the small to mid-cap universe despite higher valuations," Wood said.

Jefferies' Global Head of Equity Strategy highlighted that the Nifty Mid-Cap 100 Index trades at 27.3 times 12-month forward earnings, compared with 20.5 times for the Nifty 50. The small—to mid-cap space has higher earnings growth of more than 20 per cent, which, to a large extent, justifies the higher valuations.

Wood believes the Indian economy can potentially reach Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s target of a $10 trillion economy by the mid-2030s.

"Longer term, assuming a trend 10 per cent nominal GDP growth rate and a 1 per cent annual depreciation of the rupee in a weak dollar world, India can reach Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s target of a $10 trillion economy by the mid-2030s. In GREED & fear’s view, this is an entirely reasonable projection," Wood said.

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