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BOSTON (Reuters) - TIAA-CREF has become the first large U.S. fund complex to sell stakes in a group of Asian energy companies over human rights concerns in Sudan.

The sales of shares of China's PetroChina Co Ltd, CNPC Hong Kong and Sinopec, and Oil and Natural Gas Corp of New Delhi totaled about $60 million, TIAA-CREF said on Monday.

The stakes sold were just a small slice of New York-based TIAA-CREF's assets under management, which stood at $402 billion at the end of September, and a tiny percentage of the oil companies' market capitalization.

Still, the move could put more pressure on the companies over their business ties to Sudan's government, which is widely accused of war crimes.

The move by TIAA-CREF, which provides financial services to nonprofits like hospitals and universities, also marks a milestone for rights activists who have tried for years, mostly in vain, to line up the influential fund industry behind its social agenda.

"We hope this could send a strong message to the companies," said Hye-Won Choi, TIAA-CREF's head of corporate governance. She said her firm had sold the shares only after talks with the energy companies went nowhere.

India's ONGC said it was concerned about TIAA-CREF'S move but the firm's business in Sudan would continue.

ONGC, which leads India's hunt for foreign petroleum assets, entered Sudan about seven years ago, buying a 25 percent stake in the Greater Nile Project, from which Canada's Talisman Energy Inc exited under pressure from human rights group.