Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), the country's largest insurer, on Tuesday made a lacklustre debut on the stock exchanges. The listing price was below the price at which shares were allotted to LIC's policyholders, employees and retail investors.
Its share listed at over 8 per cent discount on the NSE and BSE against the issue price of Rs 949. LIC share was listed at Rs 867.20 on the NSE, showing a discount of Rs 77 apiece. On the BSE, the scrip was listed at Rs 872, a discount of Rs 81. 80 apiece.
LIC shares hit a high of Rs 920 on the BSE and closed at Rs 875.45. On the NSE, it hit a high of Rs 918.95 and closed at Rs 875.25 apiece.
With the listing, state-owned LIC made it to the list of the top five most valued companies in the country with a market capitalisation of Rs 5.54 lakh crore, as per BSE data on May 17.
The four companies that have market capitalisation more than LIC are Reliance Industries owned by Mukesh Ambani, Tata Consultancy Services owned by Tata Group, banking and financial services provider HDFC Bank and IT services provider Infosys.
Most valuable Indian companies
What is market capitalisation
Market capitalisation is the total valuation of a company based on its share price.
The government sold over 22.13 crore shares or a 3.5 per cent stake in LIC through the IPO. It fetched Rs 20,557 crore. LIC IPO was also India's largest to date. Paytm IPO in 2021 had mobilised Rs 18,300 crore, surpassing the state-owned Coal India's record of fetched nearly Rs 15,500 crore in 2010. Anil Ambani's Reliance Power had in 2008 mobilised Rs 11,700 crore through the public offer.
Ravi Singh, Vice President and Head of Research, ShareIndia, suggested that investors should hold and the scrip will see an uptick in the long term. He said that new investors can take advantage of the dips to accumulate this share for the long term.
"LIC share price may witness some more dip around the 860 levels in coming days. Keeping in view of the insurance sector positive outlook and LIC being the market leader in this sector, long-term investors should continue to hold the scrip while short-term investors can wait to enter at a lower price," he said.
LIC was formed by merging and nationalising 245 private life insurance companies on September 1, 1956, with an initial capital of Rs 5 crore. Its product portfolio comprises 32 individual plans (16 participating and 16 non-participating) and seven individual optional rider benefits. The insurer's group product portfolio comprises 11 group products.
READ MORE: LIC makes a weak stock market debut, lists at 8% discount
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