LIC pumps Rs 61,000 cr into equity market last fiscal

State-run Life Insurance Corporation pumped over Rs 61,000 crore into the capital market during 2009-10, 50 per cent more than what it invested in the previous fiscal.
    
"We have invested Rs 61,468 crore in the equity market for the year ended March 2010 which is almost 50 per cent higher than the previous fiscal's," LIC Executive Director (investment operations) N Mohanraj told PTI.
    
The equity exposure of LIC was over Rs 20,000 crore higher as the company had invested Rs 40,800 crore in the share market in 2008-09.
    
During the year, the gross investment, including bonds and government securities, touched Rs 1,91,737 crore compared to about Rs 1,65,000 crore in the previous fiscal, he said.
    
On further prodding about investment details, Mohanraj said that it was sector agnostic and spread across many companies.
    
Besides, LIC also participated in the primary market in a big way by investing in both initial public offers and follow-on public offers by public sector companies.
    
LIC invested about Rs 12,000 crore in the primary market during the year, he said.
    
The life insurance major was among the largest investors in NTPC's follow-on public offer and Rural Electrification Corporation.
    
Asked about the cause for increasing exposure in the stock markets, Mohanraj said that the sentiment in the equity market is improved and slew of public offers are in pipeline.
    
Moreover, the investment is also linked to premium collection. If the premium towards equity linked ULIPs goes up, the investment in the equity market goes up, he said.
    
As on February 28, in last fiscal, LIC's market share in terms of first year premium was 65.06 per cent and in terms of policies to 70.79 per cent, as per the IRDA data.
    
The life insurance behemoth had 61.12 per cent market share in terms of first year premium income and 70.52 per cent in terms of insurance policies in 2008-09.