Sells shares worth Rs 6,313 crore in other 15 Sensex companies
In a major reshuffle, life Insurance Corporation (lIC) of India utilised the recent rally and reduced its stake in half of the companies comprising Sensex. The state-owed life insurer sold shares worth Rs 6,313 crore from 15 companies listed on the benchmark index. At the same time, lIC also invested Rs 13,357 crore in 12 Sensex listed firms.
As per the shareholding pattern (SHP) data provided by the stock exchanges, lIC did the major reshuffle in its portfolio during the January- March quarter. Off the 30 companies comprising Sensex, lIC’s stake remained unchanged in Tata Steel and Tata Power while the insurer holds no stake in Hindustan Unilever.
The 12 companies in which lIC hiked its stake includes, Bharti Airtel, BHEl, NTPC, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Coal India, ITC, Cipla, Hindalco, Bajaj Auto, State Bank of India and Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M).
Biggest rise interms of percentage by lIC was seen in Axis Bank. lIC hiked its stake in the bank by 4.3 per cent to 13.62 per cent by the end of March 2014. In BHEl also, the insurer increased its stake by 3.89 per cent to 9.92 per cent in the same period.
Off al the Sensex companies, lIC holds the maximum stake of 17 per cent in larsen & Turbo (l&T). As per the data, earlier by the end of December 2013, lIC’s stake in company stood at 17.06 per cent which now has been marginally reduced by 0.06 per cnet.
The sell-off by the lIC coincided with a surge of 5.74 per cent in Sensex during the January-March quarter. lIC decreased its stake in Reliance Industries limited (RIl), Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Tata Motors, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Gail India, Maruti Suzuki, ICICI Bank, HDFC, Sun Pharama, Hero MotoCorp, Sesa Sterlite, larsen & Toubro and Dr Reddy’s laboratories among others during the last quarter.
Maximum selling by the state- run insurance company in Sun Pharmaceutical. lIC sold its entire stake in Sun Pharmaceutical. lIC held 1.03 per cent stake in Sun Pharmaceutical as on end of December 2013. Other top reductions include selling of 0.96 per cent stake in ICICI Bank and 0.64 per cent in Dr Reddy’s.
RIl and ONGC saw a marginal change as lIC reduced its stake by mere 0.01 per cent and 0.03 per cent respectively. While in M&M, the insurer marginally raised its share by 0.11 per cent.
Even though it is a routine process for lIC to reshuffle its portfolio, the recent alterations have been the biggest in last few months. Explaining the strategy behind the major reshuffle, Kunal Saraogi of Equity Rush said, “lIC booked profits from all the three heavyweight information technology shares after a strong rally the stocks registered.”
Also significant changes were seen in the banging stocks as apart from ICICI Bank, the state-run insurer hiked its stake substantially in Axis Bank, SBI and HDFC Bank. “lIC hiked its stake in Axis Bank and HDFC Bank primarily on the hopes of strong performances in the coming quarters while in SBI, the insurer is looking at significant gains as the overall business of public banks is expected to improve on back of reduction is their non performing assets,” Saraogi added.Off the 30 companies comprising the benchmark index, lIC made changes in 27 stocks leaving Tata Power and Tata Steel unaltered. lIC’s stake in Tata power remains at 12.62 per cent while in Tata Steel, the share stand unchanged at 14.88 per cent.