Private sector's share in LIC's portfolio plunges to 16-year low

Public sector's share in portfolio stands at third-highest level since liberalisation

The private sector has a lower share in the portfolio of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) now than at any point since 2003. It accounts for 14.9 per cent of the total investments, according to numbers analysed from the Reserve Bank of India’s Handbook of Statistics on the Indian Economy.

The LIC has been reportedly helped by a number of public sector divestments, as well as banks such as IDBI, which may have resulted in a shrinking pool available to the private sector. This is despite the private sector companies outperforming their public sector counterparts.

The BSE PSU index has declined