Fund muscle: in ’09-10 LIC put Rs 61,000 cr in stocks
State-run Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) pumped over Rs 61,000 crore into the capital market during financial year 2009-10 — 50 per cent more than what it invested in the previous fiscal.
State-run Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) pumped over Rs 61,000 crore into the capital market during financial year 2009-10 — 50 per cent more than what it invested in the previous fiscal.
“We have invested Rs 61,468 crore in the equity market for the year ended March 2010, which is almost 50 per cent higher than the previous fiscal’s,” LIC Executive Director (investment operations) N Mohanraj said.
The equity exposure of LIC was over Rs 20,000 crore higher as the company had invested Rs 40,800 crore in the share market in 2008-09.
During the year, the gross investment, including bonds and government securities, touched Rs 1,91,737 crore compared to about Rs 1,65,000 crore in the previous fiscal, he said.
Mohanraj said LIC was sector agnostic and spread across many companies. It also participated in the primary market in a big way by investing in both IPOs and FPOs of public sector companies.
LIC invested about Rs 12,000 crore in the primary market during the year, he said. The life insurance major was among the largest investors in NTPC’s follow-on public offer and Rural Electrification Corporation.
Asked about the reason for increasing exposure in the stock markets, Mohanraj said that the sentiment in the equity market had improved and a slew of public offers were in the pipeline.
