At least 17 companies in the BSE 500 index, which are also owned by Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), have delivered robust return to investors since the beginning of this year. With a rally of 129 per cent, Adani Transmission emerged as the biggest gainer in the list. Shares of the company jumped to Rs 3,975.70 on September 14, 2022 from Rs 1732.85 on December 31, 2021. The country’s biggest institutional investor held 3.28 per cent stake in the company as of June 30.
Data further highlighted that Bharat Dynamics stood the next big gainers in the list. The scrip advanced 121 per cent to Rs 864.45 YTD till September 14. It was followed by Hindustan Aeronautics (up 112 per cent) and Adani Enterprises (up 109 per cent) and Adani Total Gas (up 108 per cent). LIC held between 3 per cent and 8 per cent stake in these companies for the quarter ended June 30.
Also Read: Over 5,000% return in 10 years! Should you buy these well-known multibaggers now?
On the other hand, the benchmark equity index BSE Sensex gained 3.5 per cent on a year-to-date (YTD) basis. Market watchers believe buying by foreign institutional investors since July onwards aided market sentiment in the recent past. Overall, sentiment stood highly volatile in the ongoing calendar year due to rising inflation which forced the central banks to increase interest rates globally.
Commenting on the domestic equity market, Anand Radhakrishnan, Managing Director & Chief Investment Officer–Emerging Markets Equity-India, Franklin Templeton said, “Globally, two black swan events–pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine geopolitical conflict–have sparked inflationary conditions through excess stimulus and commodity price shocks respectively. This in turn has warranted continuation in higher rate regime and policy tightening measures for key global economies. The likely resultant impact on asset prices, global trade slowdown and demand outlook cumulatively point to a moderation in global growth going forward.”
Also Read: The 13 BSE 500 stocks rallied over 100% since last Independence Day; do you own any?
Coming back to LIC’s top gainers, players including GHCL, The Indian Hotels Company, Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers, Bank of Baroda, TVS Motor, Bharat Electronics, Coal India, Swan Energy, Mahindra & Mahindra, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services, ITC and Tata Elxsi also added between 50 per cent and 83 per cent YTD.
While sharing his top themes with investors, Radhakrishnan said, “We focus on three key themes in our portfolios including focus on domestic cyclical sectors which are early beneficiaries of uptick in the economic cycles, Consolidation in various industries led by shift from unorganised to organised sector and identifying beneficiaries of tech-led disruption which exhibit long term sustainable of their unique proposition.”