The insurance company Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) made a profit by selling its equity stake in the companies during the March quarter.
New Delhi: Insurance company Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has made a profit by selling its equity stake in companies during the March quarter. A report by Prime Database stated that its total investment in 296 companies with more than one percent stake declined to 3.66 percent in March from 3.70 percent in December 2020, which is the lowest ever.
Pranav Haldia, managing director of Prime Database Group, said that this was due to LIC realizing profits, while in 2012 the investment reached a high of five per cent.
Interestingly, LIC’s equity assets reached an all-time high of Rs 7.24 lakh crore in March in value terms, reflecting a 6.30 percent increase. Significantly, during this period the Sensex and Nifty rose 3.70 percent and 5.10 percent respectively. Insurance companies’ investment in equity declined to a five-year low of 4.80 per cent by the end of 31 March 2020, from five per cent in 31 December 2020. However, in terms of value, it increased by 3.09 percent over the previous quarter.
LIC holds more than three-quarters of the equity investment of insurance companies. Haldia said that in this way the investment of mutual funds declined to 7.23 per cent as on 31 March 2021, from 7.42 per cent at the end of the previous quarter. This is the fourth consecutive quarter when mutual funds sold their stake.
