The country’s biggest institutional investor Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) was on a shopping spree in the third quarter of FY23 when the benchmark equity index BSE Sensex witnessed a rise of 5.9 per cent. Data available with Ace Equity showed that the insurance behemoth raised substantial stakes in at least 10 companies from across the sectors. Have a look:
Indian Railway Catering And Tourism Corporation (IRCTC): LIC increased its stake in the PSU ticket booking and hospitality company to 7.42 per cent in Q3FY23 from 4.44 per cent in the preceding quarter ended September 30, indicating a change of 2.98 percentage points. At present, IRCTC’s market cap stands at Rs 51,984 crore with a market price of Rs 649.80 on February 17, 2023.
Voltas: The insurance major upped its holdings by 1.64 percentage points to 9.88 per cent for the quarter ended December 31, 2022 against 8.24 per cent in the previous quarter. Voltas, one of the largest Indian air conditioner manufacturing companies has a market valuation of Rs 28,277 crore at a stock price of Rs 854.6.
Mphasis: This software developing company has witnessed a 1.56 percentage point rise in LIC holding to 3.66 per cent from 2.1 per cent a quarter earlier. At the current market price of Rs 2236.30, Mphasis has an m-cap of Rs 42,129 crore.
Tech Mahindra: It is another IT major where LIC hiked its ownership in the recent quarter. LIC’s stake has jumped by 1.48 percentage points to 7.44 per cent in Q3FY23 from 5.96 per cent in the previous quarter.
Capri Global Capital: LIC increased its holding by 1.44 percentage points to 9.69 per cent from 8.25 per cent as of September 30, 2022. The market capitalisation of the NBFC stood at Rs 14,495 crore on February 17, 2023, while the share price of the company was at Rs 703.5.
Others: In addition to this, LIC also significantly raised its investments in Dr Reddy’s Laboratories. LIC’s holding in the pharma major increased by 1.35 percentage points to 8.95 per cent. It was followed by Welspun Corp where the stake grew by 1.29 percentage points to a total of 8 per cent. Deepak Nitrite (up 1.27 percentage points to 6.44 per cent) and GAIL (India) (up 1.02 percentage points to 7.01 per cent) and HDFC AMC (up 1 percentage point to 9.12 per cent) stood among other major favourites of the Life Insurance Corporation of India in the December quarter.
Data available from Ace Equity and BSE showed that LIC held over one per cent stake in close to 300-listed firms. LIC’s top holding includes IDBI Bank with 49.24 per cent equity ownership, LIC Housing Finance (45.24 per cent), Standard Batteries (19.99 per cent), Modella Woollens (17.31 per cent) and Cochin Malabar Estates & Industries (16.77 per cent).
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