LIC investments up 7-fold in April-May

Insurance behemoth and the largest institutional investor in India,Life Insurance Corporation of India LIC,has made a huge investment of Rs 26,335 crore in April-May this year in various asset classes including debt and equity,which is seven times more than what it invested in the same period last year,said a senior official of the corporation here.

8220;In the last two months alone between April 1and May 31,2010,we invested a sum of Rs 26,335 crore in different asset classes,which include debt and equity and a sum of Rs 8,363 crore of the total amount invested was put in the stock market alone. The investment made by us during the period is seven times more than that of the investment made at the same period of the last fiscal,8221; said A Mohan Raj,executive director of Life Insurance Corporation of India. Foreign funds had pulled out over 2 billion from Indian markets in May this year following the European debt worries.

LIC has always been considered as the saviour of all big initial public offerings IPOs or follow-on public offers FPOs particularly when it comes to the public sector undertakings. Even this year it has plans to play a significant role. 8220;We will prefer the FPO/IPO route to enter the markets,8221; Raj said.

Earlier,TS Vijayan,chairman of LIC had said that the company was expecting a total premium collection in excess of Rs 2 lakh crore this fiscal.