Gone are the days when LIC, at the behest of the government, used to anchor troubled stock markets. Today, the life insurer has a mandate from ULIP investors to buy shares.Life Insurance Corporation of India has already purchased equity shares worth Rs 12,000 crore in the markets this fiscal, with 80% of its new business premium coming from unit linked insurance products (ULIPs)."Our investment in equity has been Rs 12,000 crore this fiscal and Rs 32,000 crore in debt as on August 31, 2007," T S Vijayan, chairman, LIC said on Friday after presenting the bonus and financials for 2006-07.Birla Sun Life Insurance pioneered ULIPs in India just four years back and LIC's first ULIP product was introduced in early 2005.Driven by ULIPs, LIC's investment in equity markets is set to double this fiscal if current demand continues.Meanwhile, the total purchases of LIC in the stock market this year had already touched Rs 19,700 crore as compared to Rs 24,000 crore in the entire fiscal of 2006-07.Besides total ULIPs fund investment of Rs 14,000 crore in market this fiscal, another Rs 5,700 crore exposure in markets represented traditional products.Under ULIPs, up to 80% fund gathered by LIC could have exposure to equity markets in contrast to only 8 to 10% exposure taken for traditional products.LIC's total investment in the capital market as on March 31 stood at Rs 1,24,643 crore.
