LIC increased stake in these BSE 500 firms in the March quarter

Insurance behemoth Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), which is likely to announce its initial public offerings (IPO) soon, was on a shopping spree on Dalal Street in the March quarter. Initial shareholding data showed that the country’s biggest institutional investor upped its stake in over 40 companies so far in the BSE 500 index.  

The benchmark equity index BSE Sensex inched up marginally by 0.54 per cent during the January-March period. Overall, the domestic equity market stood highly volatile in the fourth quarter of FY22 due to rising concerns over inflation and sustained outflows by foreign institutional investors. However, robust buying by domestic institutional investors capped the downside.

LIC upped its stake in companies from across the sector during the quarter gone by. For instance, the insurer increased its holdings in oil marketing company Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) to 7.46 per cent from 4.78 per cent earlier. In the banking space, it further lapped up a stake in ICICI Bank (to 7.92 per cent from 7.77 per cent) and Union Bank of India (5.63 per cent from 5.34 per cent).

Data further highlighted that LIC also raised its holdings in some other companies including Capri Global Capital, Rajesh Exports, Britannia, Shree Cement, PI Industries, Dhanuka Agritech, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Aarti Industries, CESC, Adani Enterprises, Apollo Hospitals, The Ramco Cement, Kansai Nerolac Paints, HCL Technologies and HDFC.

Of late, the boards of HDFC and HDFC Bank announced that the former will merge with the latter. The proposed merger will enable HDFC Bank to build its housing loan portfolio and enhance its existing customer base. On a month-to-date basis, shares of HDFC Bank and HDFC have cracked over 10 per cent and 8.6 per cent to date. On the other hand, the 30-share index Sensex has lost over 3 per cent during the same period.

Coming back to the shareholding pattern, LIC also increased its stake in Pidilite Industries, Balkrishna Industries, Pfizer, Divi’s Labs, Info Edge, Adani Transmission, HUL, Shriram Transport Finance, Deepak Nitrite, Dr Lal Pathlabs, Astral, Tata Communications, P&G Hygiene, Aurobindo Pharma, JSW Steel, Wipro, PCBL, Endurance Technologies, SBI Cards, TCS, Vedanta, Bicon, Sanofi India, Mindtree and Sterlite Technologies, among others.

(Complete shareholding data is yet to be announced.)

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