Amid high market volatility and foreign investor selling in Q4 FY25, LIC emerged as a major domestic buyer with net equity purchases exceeding ₹47,000 crore.
LIC’s portfolio includes 351 stocks; it increased holdings in around 105 stocks and added 13 new ones, while trimming exposure in 86 and exiting or dropping below 1% stake in 15.
LIC’s biggest Q4 buy was Hero MotoCorp, investing ₹4,968 crore to raise its stake from 5.53% to 11.84%.
Other large investments included Reliance Industries (₹3,675 crore), L&T (₹2,975 crore), Asian Paints (₹2,466 crore), Hindustan Unilever (₹2,361 crore), and Bajaj Auto (₹1,983 crore).
Significant investments were also made in SBI (₹1,652 crore), Patanjali Foods (₹1,638 crore), Tata Motors (₹1,578 crore), Maruti Suzuki (₹1,493 crore), HCL Tech (₹1,441 crore), and Indraprastha Gas (₹1,333 crore).
Over ₹1,000 crore was invested each in Bharat Electronics, Nestle India, LTIMindtree, Britannia Industries, and ITC.
New additions included IRFC (₹1,815 crore, 1.05% stake), Jindal Stainless (₹640 crore, 1.24%), and KPIT Technologies (₹485 crore, 1.32%).
Other new entries were Punjab & Sind Bank, BLS International, JTL Industries, Enviro Infra Engineers, Quality Power Electrical Equipments, Avalon Technologies, Jai Corp, Bombay Dyeing, and Praveg.
LIC acquired ₹3,325 crore worth of ITC Hotels shares, gaining a 9.22% stake post demerger from ITC Ltd.
It reduced stake in ICICI Bank by ₹1,987 crore (down to 6.8% from 7.14%).
Technology stake cuts included Infosys (₹1,652 crore), TCS (₹1,625 crore), and Wipro (₹1,234 crore).
Other divestments (₹300–800 crore range) included Pidilite, Divi’s Labs, Coromandel, Bajaj Finserv, JSW Energy, Bajaj Finance, and HDFC Bank.
LIC exited or reduced below 1% stake in 15 companies including Aban Offshore, Binny Mills, Piramal Pharma, and Macrotech Developers.
Total equity portfolio value declined to ₹15.18 lakh crore from ₹15.88 lakh crore in the previous quarter.
During Q4, Sensex and Nifty fell 0.9% and 0.5%, while BSE MidCap and SmallCap dropped 10.6% and 15.5%, respectively.
Foreign investors sold over ₹1.18 lakh crore worth of equities, while domestic institutions (including LIC) bought over ₹1.86 lakh crore.
