Norway's $863 billion wealth fund excludes 52 coal related firms

OSLO, April 14 (Reuters) - Norway's $863 billion sovereign wealth fund, the world's biggest, said on Thursday it had banned 52 companies from its portfolio based on a newly created rule to exclude firms that rely on coal for a significant part of their business.

U.S. firms AES Corp and Allete Inc were among the firms, as were China Coal Energy Co Ltd and Reliance Power Ltd of India.

Norway's parliament agreed last year to make the fund sell out of companies that get more than 30 percent of their business from coal. The fund is also limiting investments in firms with high greenhouse gas emissions.

(Reporting by Terje Solsvik, editing by Stine Jacobsen)