Shares of Life Insurance Corporation of India Ltd. (LIC), India's largest insurance company, will be in focus on Monday as its shareholder lock-in period will end on November 13, freeing up a large chunk of shares for trading.
According to a note from Nuvama Alternative & Quantitative Research, 126.5 crore shares or 20% of the company's outstanding equity will be eligible for trading once the lock-in period ends.
Ending of the shareholder lock-in period does not necessarily mean that those shares will be sold in the open market. They just become eligible to be traded.
LIC, India's largest IPO, went public in May 2022 where the government sold 3.5% equity for over ₹21,000 crore. Shares were sold at ₹949 apiece and the stock
has not gone back to its IPO price since then. The stock made an all-time low of ₹530 in March this year before slightly recovering from those levels.
As of Sunday's closing price, LIC shares are down 36% from their IPO price, 18 months after listing. The government continues to hold the remaining 96.5% stake in the company.
Shares of LIC will also be reacting to their quarterly results which it reported after market hours on Friday.
For the September quarter, LIC's net premium income fell 19% from last year to ₹1.07 lakh crore. Its annualised premium equivalent also fell 12.5% to ₹13,095 crore.
The value of new business for the company declined by 10% to ₹3,304 crore, while its VNB margin remained flat at 14.6% from the same period last year.
Embedded value at the end of the September quarter for LIC stood at ₹6.62 lakh crore from ₹5.44 lakh crore last year.
Shares of LIC ended 0.4% lower on the Muhurat trading day at ₹608. The stock is down 15% so far in 2023.
(With Inputs From Yash Jain.)
(Edited by : Amrita)
First Published: Nov 13, 2023 6:03 AM IST
