During the March 2025 quarter, when the Indian stock market was going through a lot of ups and downs, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) became a major buyer of Indian shares. LIC purchased stocks worth more than Rs 47,000 crore during this period, showing strong support for the market even as foreign investors continued to sell heavily.
LIC currently holds shares in 351 companies. In Q4, it added shares in around 105 of them, with 13 being completely new entries. At the same time, LIC reduced its investment in 86 companies and fully exited from 15 firms, where its holding dropped below 1 percent.
One of LIC’s biggest investments in Q4 was Hero MotoCorp, where it increased its stake to 11.84 percent from 5.53 percent, investing nearly Rs 4,968 crore. The next big investment was in Reliance Industries, with LIC buying shares worth Rs 3,675 crore, raising its holding to 6.74 percent. Other large investments were made in Larsen & Toubro (Rs 2,975 crore), Asian Paints (Rs 2,466 crore), Hindustan Unilever (Rs 2,361 crore), and Bajaj Auto (Rs 1,983 crore).
LIC also acquired stakes in a few of the biggest firms that include State Bank of India (Rs 1,652 crore), Patanjali Foods (Rs 1,638 crore), Tata Motors (Rs 1,578 crore), Maruti Suzuki India (Rs 1,493 crore), HCL Technologies (Rs 1,441 crore), and Indraprastha Gas (Rs 1,333 crore). It also invested more than Rs 1,000 crore in firms such as Bharat Electronics, Nestle India, LTIMindtree, Britannia Industries, and ITC.
LIC also acquired IRFC in its kitty for a 1.05% stake valued at Rs 1,815 crore. It also acquired stakes in the likes of Jindal Stainless, KPIT Technologies, Punjab & Sind Bank, and BLS International. It also got a 9.22% stake in ITC Hotels valuing Rs 3,325 crore as the latter was demerged from ITC Ltd.
However, LIC trimmed its stake in ICICI Bank by Rs 1,987 crore and reduced its positions in major technology companies such as Infosys (Rs 1,652 crore), TCS (Rs 1,625 crore), and Wipro (Rs 1,234 crore). It made lesser reductions in firms such as Bajaj Finance, HDFC Bank, Pidilite Industries, and Divi’s Laboratories, among others.
LIC reduced or exited below 1% stake in 15 firms including Macrotech Developers, Paradeep Phosphates, Kaveri Seed, Piramal Pharma, and Texmaco Rail
As of the end of March 2025, the total portfolio of LIC stood at approximately Rs 15.18 lakh crore, a slight decrease from the last quarter of Rs 15.88 lakh crore. This was when the Sensex and the Nifty also dropped slightly and the mid and small-cap stocks also plummeted by more than 10 percent and 15 percent. In the process, foreign investors off-loaded equities to the tune of Rs 1.18 lakh crore while the domestic institutional investors, including LIC, purchased equities to the tune of Rs 1.86 lakh crore.
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Source: Moneycontrol.
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