Life Insurance Corporation of India will not take any additional exposure to the equity markets this fiscal and keep it at last year’s level.
D.K. Mehrotra, Chairman, said the firm would limit its exposure to equities this fiscal at Rs 45,000 crore, which was what it had invested in the markets last fiscal. LIC’s overall investments this fiscal in different instruments will, however, go up to about Rs 2,10,000 crore from Rs 1,95,000 crore last year, he said on the sidelines of an event here.
Its limit on equity exposure, however, will not prevent the insurance behemoth from picking up shares of PSUs that come up for disinvestment. The Government is likely to kick off a new round of PSU disinvestment with aluminium maker NALCO in the coming weeks, followed by iron ore miner National Mineral Development Corporation and other PSUs.
“We will pick up the PSUs’ shares if we find good value as a long-term investment,” he said, making it clear that the company will not be a “bail-out agency” for the Government’s disinvestment programme.