Country’s biggest domestic institutional investor Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) was on a major shopping spree on Dalal Street in the December quarter, even as the benchmark equity index BSE Sensex declined due to rising uncertainty over Covid-19 pandemic and selling by foreign institutional investors. The broader index BSE 500 also lost half a per cent during the quarter gone by.
Data available with corporate database Ace Equity showed LIC upped stakes in more than 70 companies from the BSE 500 index. The insurer had a stake in over 200 companies in the index.
Among the large caps, Hero MotoCorp witnessed LIC stake go up to 11.08 per cent at the end of December from 10.88 per cent as of September 30, 2021. LIC also raised its holding in UPL (from 10.12 per cent to 10.47 per cent), ICICI Bank (7.59 per cent to 7.77 per cent), Tata Steel (6.33 per cent to 6.40 per cent), Reliance Industries (5.98 per cent to 6.13 per cent) and Infosys (5.55 per cent to 5.67 per cent).
Analysts are also bullish on a couple of stocks from the list. For instance, Motilal Oswal Financial sees over 30 per cent upside in Infosys from the current market price.
“Infosys delivered a strong performance in Q3FY22 across all sectors and core geographies. Management indicated traction in large deals and highlighted that the deal pipeline was the highest in a very long time. While there are near term headwinds on the supply-side, we expect them to normalise in the next couple of quarters,” Motilal Oswal Financial Services said in a report.
YES Securities is bullish on ICICI Bank with a target price of Rs 1,044, indicating an upside of over 30 per cent from the current market price.
The insurance behemoth also showed confidence in paint majors during the quarter gone by, raising the stake in Kansai Nerolac to 2.12 per cent from 1.40 per cent in September quarter. It also hiked stake in Asian Paints to 1.85 per cent from 1.49 per cent earlier.
Centrum Broking has set a target price of Rs 3,690 for Asian Paints. “We believe Asian Paints is a structural growth story, capturing demand across segments and town class,” the brokerage said in a report.
LIC also raised stake in Eicher Motors, Shree Cement, Astral, Bharat Electronics, Divi’s Labs, Pidilite Industries, YES Bank, Tech Mahindra, Adani Total Gas, Ultratech Cement, Dixon Technologies, Tata Motors, Torrent Power, Aarti Industries, ICICI Securities, Nestle India, Godrej Agrovet, HCL Technologies, HPCL, Hindustan Zinc and Info Edge, among others.
Adani Enterprises, Deepak Nitrite, Coforge, Balkrishna Industries, Marico, Welspun Corp, Alkem Laboratories, Indian Railway Catering And Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) also witnessed a hike in shareholding by LIC in Q3FY22.