LIC portfolio reshuffle: Know the stocks in which it raised exposure recently

Kolkata: You could call it LIC's new shopping list, for the agency which sits one of the biggest cash chest in the country has raised exposure in certain stocks during the course of reshuffling its portfolio. Since LIC is one of the players with the biggest muscle, any change in LIC portfolio is analysed with great care by the investors in the country. Let's have a look at the changes.

In Q2 (July-September), FIIs were offloading a part of their holding in Indian stocks. LIC made fresh purchase of Rs 21,700 crore, while selling its stake in some stocks. LIC, is a public sector insurance behemoth and has been one of the principal domestic institutional investor which has been a stabilizing force in the Indian equity markets. Whenever foreign investors have sold in large numbers, LIC has picked up shares whenever it has sniffed fresh buying opportunity.

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LIC offloaded some bluechip stocks such as HDFC and ICICI Bank. The insurance giant has purchased stocks of SBI, HCL Tech, and Yes Bank in the volatile month of September this year. As a result, LIC's stake in as many as 76 listed firms has gone up. It also indicates confidence of the institution in these stocks and their futures. Most interesting, there are as many as 13 stocks which LIC has purchased for the first time.

Simultaneously, LIC has also slightly decreased stake in 81 companies. LIC has also exited the shareholding patterns of 31 companies, though it is not clear whether LIC has sold its entire stake in these companies, or whether its stake has dipped below the 1% floor required for disclosure.

LIC has placed higher bets on public sector banks and the IT sector. LIC's largest purchase this quarter was in State Bank of India, the bank in the country. LIC purchased additional 6.42 crore shares of SBI and now holds a stake that is valued about Rs 5,599 crore in this bank. It also invested Rs 3,226 crore in Sun Pharmaceuticals and Rs 2,939 crore in HCL Technologies. Other major companies that LIC has picked include Pidilite Industries (Rs 2,234 crore), Coal India (Rs 2,119 crore), NTPC (Rs 1,992 crore), Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles (Rs 1,904 crore), Cipla (Rs 1,686 crore) and the country's largest IT company Tata Consultancy Services (Rs 1,654 crore).

While LIC purchased select stocks, it also reduced its stake in some large private banks and FIs. LIC pared its holdings in HDFC Bank by Rs 3,130 crore and that in ICICI Bank by Rs 2,338 crore. LIC also sold stocks of Larsen & Toubro (Rs 2,243 crore), Bharti Airtel (Rs 2,205 crore), Mahindra & Mahindra (Rs 2,149 crore), Maruti Suzuki (Rs 2,052 crore) and Kotak Mahindra Bank (Rs 1,994 crore).

LIC added as many as 13 new companies to its portfolio. These are BSE, which garnered the biggest investment -- 2.28 crore shares of BSE valued at Rs 4,637 crore. It also picked up Yes Bank shares worth Rs 2,653 crore and that of ABB India worth Rs 2,424 crore. Other newly added stocks include Varun Beverages (Rs 1,982 crore), Shriram Finance (Rs 1,492 crore) and Persistent Systems (Rs 819 crore).