LIC invests Rs 44,000 crore in equity markets in Apr-Nov period

Mumbai: Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) on Tuesday said it has invested Rs 44,000 crore in the equity markets between April-November this year, a rise of 52 percent over the year-ago period.

It had invested around Rs 29,000 crore in April-November period in the previous fiscal.

In the first half of the current fiscal, the life insurance major had more than doubled its investment in equities to Rs 39,224 crore from Rs 18,000 crore in the same period last fiscal.

"This year the government's disinvestment program has picked up in the first half and, we, being the long term investor have invested there," its chairman V K Sharma told reporters here today.

In the previous fiscal, LIC had invested Rs 47,000 crore into equities.

Sharma, however, said in the rest of the fiscal, LIC will not be an aggressive buyer of equities.

"We don't want to buy extra in equities...We are contrarians. Market is at its peak. We will keep on doing routine sales and purchases of equities but we will not be aggressive in buying equities," Sharma said.

He said LIC has seen some dip in its income from investments in debt instruments due to falling interest rate scenario.

The company wants to invest more in the government securities as it will be beneficial for policy holders and pensioners.

"We will like RBI to issue more long-dated securities. Our appetite for g-sec will be Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 crore for the coming four months of this fiscal," Sharma said.

For the six months ended September, LIC's first year premium grew 24 percent to Rs 68,224.29 crore.

Total premium income grew 12 percent to Rs 1,48,037 crore in the April-September period as against Rs 1,32,257 crore collected during the corresponding period last year.

It's gross total income registered a growth of 13 percent at Rs 2,50,267 crore in the first half as compared to Rs 2,22,350 crore in the year-ago period.

Total assets stood at Rs 27,25,808 crore as compared to Rs 23,90,056 crore for the corresponding period last year, a growth of over 14.04 percent.

Total policy payouts amounted to Rs 76,126 crore as compared to Rs 73,546 crore in the year ago period. It includes a payout of Rs 35,482.07 crore for claims outgo covering 79,74,383 claimants for the half year ending Setember 2017 as against Rs 35,643.75 crore and 73,22,250 claimants in the corresponding period previous year.