LIC buys stake worth Rs 14,500 cr in 15 blue chip companies; may invest Rs 40,000 cr this fiscal

LICI chairman SK Roy

PUBLIC sector insurer Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has increased its stake in 15 top Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) companies during the July-September quarter. The state-owned insurance behemoth bought shares worth about Rs 14,500 crore in a total of 15 blue chip firms. At the same time, the PSU insurer sold shares worth...
Rs 9,500 crore in 11 blue-chip companies. It resulted in a net inflow of Rs 5,000 crore in all the Sensex firms. In fact, LIC has also stepped up its buying spree in recent months taking  advantage of lower stock prices.
The PSU is also likely to exceed the Rs 40,000-crore-target for investment in equities in the current financial year, said LIC chairman SK Roy recently. He said the company has so far got more opportunity to buy stake than had anticipated earlier. In the current financial year so far, the public sector life insurer has made around Rs 32,000 crore worth new equity investments.
The PSU insurer increased its share in State Bank of India (SBI), ICICI Bank, Yes Bank, Sesa Sterlite, Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra, Reliance Industries, Tata Motors, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Wipro, Hindalco Industries, Cipla among others during the period.
In the quarter ending September 30, ICICI Bank saw the maximum stake hike in LIC holding by 2.97 percentage points, followed by 2.53 percentage points in SBI.