LIC clocks Rs. 11,000 cr profit via equity investment in FY16

Amidst the ongoing hide-and-seek game between the Bulls and the Bears, LIC has been able to avert the severe impact that ensues from bearish market trends on its investments in Sensex blue-chip firms. 

India’s largest life insurer, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), has clocked a profit of Rs.11,000 crore through equity investment in FY16, reported PTI.

LIC’s executive director for investment operations, Pravin Kutumbe was quoted as saying: “We saw some profit booking opportunities during the fiscal and have made a profit of Rs.11,000 crore through our equity investments in the recently concluded financial year.”

The DII biggie pumped in Rs.2.70 lakh crore in Indian securities markets, of which, Rs.65,000 crore was invested in equities.

Volatility in the markets towards the latter part of 2015-16 led to the company exceeding its equity investments target of Rs.60,000 crore announced earlier.

Kutumbe said that having announced a target of investing up to Rs.1.5 lakh crore to help the Railways, LIC has loaned Rs.7,000 crore to the Railways in 2015-16 for scaling up.

During the fiscal, the Sensex corrected nearly 10%.

The investment pattern of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) in as many as 23 Sensex companies between December 2014 to December 2015 somehow reflects the billionaire investor’s famous advice on: “Be Fearful When Others Are Greedy and Greedy When Others Are Fearful”

Amidst the ongoing hide-and-seek game between the Bulls and the Bears, LIC has been able to avert the severe impact that ensues from bearish market trends on its investments in Sensex blue-chip firms.

During the aforesaid period, India’s largest life insurer has increased its shareholding in 13 Sensex firms. However, this DIIs biggie trimmed its exposure in 9 firms from the Sensex pack. 

LIC’s combined shareholding value in 23 Sensex heavyweights has come down 3.3% to Rs.1,79,772.31 crore as on March 9, 2016 from Rs.1,85,925.02 crore on December 31, 2014. It is pertinent to note that of this 23 Sensex firms 16 stocks have crashed between 2-59%, but still the intensity of fall in combined shareholding value is not alarming, especially when the Indian stock markets have entered the bearish phase.

LIC's shareholding in 23 Sensex firms

Company	As on Dec-2014 (%)	As on Dec-2015 (%)	Change in Percentage points
Hero MotoCorp	2.13	5.43	3.30
Tata Motors	3.28	6.25	2.97
Sun Pharma	1.35	3.36	2.01
Adani Ports	1.45	3.28	1.83
HUL	0.00	1.55	1.55
M&M	12.31	13.53	1.22
Infosys	4.69	5.59	0.90
RIL	8.67	9.40	0.73
ONGC	7.70	8.36	0.66
Bajaj Auto	4.82	5.26	0.44
TCS	2.43	2.78	0.35
NTPC	9.68	10.03	0.35
Wipro	1.70	1.89	0.19
Tata Steel	14.59	14.59	0.00
Asian Paints	5.53	5.37	-0.16
Bharti Airtel	4.79	4.62	-0.17
SBI	12.26	11.50	-0.76
Maruti Suzuki	6.77	6.01	-0.76
HDFC Bank	3.45	2.65	-0.80
Coal India	7.24	5.86	-1.38
Cipla	6.67	5.26	-1.41
BHEL	9.42	4.89	-4.53
GAIL	7.45	2.20	-5.25

Ipca Labs slumps 13%; to source ACTs from pre-qualified suppliers

The company will source ACTs from pre-qualified suppliers that have no pending regulatory issues. 

Ipca Labs Ltd was lower by 13% at Rs. 487. The Global Fund, Geneva, Switzerland vide their letter dated April 04, 2016 (which was transmitted to the company vide their e-mail dated April 06, 2016), have informed the company that in the light of the warning letter issued to the company by the United States Federal Drug Regulatory Authority (US FDA) on January 29, 2016, they have re-assessed the situation and following a risk consideration exercise, will not allocate any volume of Artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACTs) to the company and that they will only source ACTs from other pre-qualified suppliers that have no outstanding issues with the regulators.

The scrip opened at Rs. 525 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 534 and Rs. 491.45 respectively. So far 73044(NSE+BSE) shares were traded on the counter. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 7048.9 crore.

The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 2 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 888 on 19-Aug-2015 and a 52 week low of Rs. 525 on 16-Mar-2016. Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 581.7 and Rs. 540 respectively.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 45.89 % while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 35.94 % and 18.17 % respectively.

The stock is currently trading below its 200 DMA.

Equitas IPO achieves several milestones; subscribed 17 times

Among various investors’ categories, the issue was subscribed 15.05 times by qualified institutional buyers (QIB), 57.47 times by HNI-NII, 1.36 times by retail investors and 0.86 times by employees.

The initial public offering (IPO) of the Chennai-based small finance bank (SFB) closed with a bang today. The issue subscribed 17.28 times and collected over 26,800 crore as against expected over Rs. 2,000 crore.

Among various investors’ categories, the issue was subscribed 15.05 times by qualified institutional buyers (QIB), 57.47 times by HNI-NII, 1.36 times by retail investors and 0.86 times by employees.

This has been the first significant IPO by a BFSI in a long long time. Besides, Equitas’ IPO is the second largest only after InterGlobe Aviation’s Rs. 3,000 crore IPO in October 2015. With its issue size of over Rs. 2,000 crore, this is the first and only IPO of such a huge amount in CY16 and FY17. The IPO is the first in CY2016 and FY17 to collect over Rs. 25,000 crore so far.

The company has raised Rs. 650 crore from anchor investors by allotting 59.3 million shares at Rs. 110 per share. Post IPO, the holding of foreign investors in the company will come down to 35% from the current 93%. 

Opening Bell - Sensex, Nifty in red

At 9:15 AM, the S&P BSE Sensex is trading at 24,636 down 49 points, while NSE Nifty is trading at 7,543 down mere three points. Asian markets have worries of their won and US indices ended in the red. 

 At 9:15 AM, the S&P BSE Sensex is trading at 24,636 down 49 points, while NSE Nifty is trading at 7,543 down mere three points.

Asian markets have worries of their won and US indices ended in the red. The currency movement, developments on the oil front and FII flows will continue to be routinely checked ahead of the weekend.

US stock indices tumbled on Thursday, with the technology shares particularly taking it on the chin, as investors turned to safe haven assets amid persistent worries over anemic global growth prospects. The Dow sank 1%, S&P 500 index fell 1.2% and  Nasdaq Composite declined 1.5%. The dollar fell to its lowest level against the yen in nearly 18 months. Since the beginning of the year, the dollar has shed more than 10% of its value against the Japanese currency. Expectations of a slowdown in US interest-rate hikes have sapped demand for the greenback. Gold prices rose 1.1% to settle at US$1,237.50 an ounce.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley reportedly said that even if oil prices move a little higher, they will not be negative for India, but “exceedingly high” rates create problems for the country.

The Supreme Court on Thursday asked Vijay Mallya when he would return to India to negotiate on his offer to settle the INR 9,000 crore debt he and his companies owe 17 public sector banks (PSB).

The Reserve Bank of India in its State Finances Report notes that shareable taxes rose from 2.9% in FY15 to 3.4% of GDP in FY16. Also States Held Rs. 1.49 Lakh Crore 14-day T-bills As On March 31. Led by former CAG Vinod Rai four members Bank Board Bureau (BBB) will hold its first meeting in Reserve Bank of India headquarters in Mumbai on April 8 to discuss a range of issues including board level appointments in public sector banks and consolidation among themselves. 

Sensex, Nifty to open on a weak note

Asian markets have worries of their won and US indices ended in the red. US stock indices tumbled on Thursday, with the technology shares particularly taking it on the chin, as investors turned to safe haven assets amid persistent worries over anemic global growth prospects. 

As people celebrate Gudi Padwa in Maharashtra and Ugadi in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, they will consume a mixture of sweet and sour to symbolise good and bad. The market too is going through a choppy phase and is likely to see more sourness initially. Auto, IT and FMCG stocks led the decline on Thursday followed by realty, capital goods and banking stocks. Mid-cap and small-cap stocks are also mostly on the dumping list.

The Nifty has now declined by 2.5% post the Reserve Bank's interest rate reduction announcement on 5th April. While the Bank Nifty has fallen 4.3%, the Nifty PSU Bank index has plunged ~7% since then.

The outlook is a weak start. Asian markets have worries of their won and US indices ended in the red. The currency movement, developments on the oil front and FII flows will continue to be routinely checked ahead of the weekend.

US stock indices tumbled on Thursday, with the technology shares particularly taking it on the chin, as investors turned to safe haven assets amid persistent worries over anemic global growth prospects. The Dow sank 1%, S&P 500 index fell 1.2% and  Nasdaq Composite declined 1.5%. The dollar fell to its lowest level against the yen in nearly 18 months. Since the beginning of the year, the dollar has shed more than 10% of its value against the Japanese currency. Expectations of a slowdown in US interest-rate hikes have sapped demand for the greenback. Gold prices rose 1.1% to settle at US$1,237.50 an ounce.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley reportedly said that even if oil prices move a little higher, they will not be negative for India, but “exceedingly high” rates create problems for the country.

The Supreme Court on Thursday asked Vijay Mallya when he would return to India to negotiate on his offer to settle the INR 9,000 crore debt he and his companies owe 17 public sector banks (PSB).

The Reserve Bank of India in its State Finances Report notes that shareable taxes rose from 2.9% in FY15 to 3.4% of GDP in FY16. Also States Held Rs. 1.49 Lakh Crore 14-day T-bills As On March 31. Led by former CAG Vinod Rai four members Bank Board Bureau (BBB) will hold its first meeting in Reserve Bank of India headquarters in Mumbai on April 8 to discuss a range of issues including board level appointments in public sector banks and consolidation among themselves.'