State-run life insurance major LIC today said it would invest Rs 1 lakh crore in the equity market in the current financial year, up from Rs 35,000 crore during 2008-09.
“We have already invested Rs 40,000 crore in the stock market in the first four months of the current financial year and by March 2010, the company would invest an additional Rs 1 lakh crore,” LIC Zonal Manager (North) Vinay Kumar Sinha said.
LIC had invested about Rs 35,000 crore in the equity market during 2008-09, he said. Such a large investment by the country’s biggest domestic financial institution will boost sentiments at bourses, which witnessed volatility, especially after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in America last October.
Having crossed the 21,000 points-mark in January 2008, the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark index (Sensex) nosedived to around 8,000 points last year itself.