A group representing 150 billion Swiss francs' ($148 billion) worth of pension and insurance funds has decided to sell out of 15 defence companies, joining a growing list of investor groups ready to dump stocks on ethical grounds.

The Swiss Association for Responsible Investment was put together by seven of the country's larger pensions and social insurance funds, including the country's largest public fund Publica and its state pensions buffer fund CompenSwiss, in December 2015.