Life Insurance Corp. of India will restrict its stock investments and boost its holdings of Indian government bonds after buying 440 billion rupees of stocks in the first eight months of the year ending March 31, 2018, according to Reuters and Bloomberg News.
The state-owned insurer set a target of investing 500 billion rupees in stocks in the current fiscal year. From April 1 through Nov. 30, the insurer invested 440 billion rupees in stocks. LIC Chairman V.K. Sharma said the insurer is not interested in buying stocks.
LIC, however, is ready to invest in state-owned banks, depending on their performance, Sharma added.
Meanwhile, the insurer plans to add its holdings of government debt. It plans to purchase 100 billion rupees to 200 billion rupees of government bonds by March, adding to its 16.2 trillion rupees of sovereign debt. Further, it holds 3.1 trillion rupee in company debt.
As of Dec. 5, US$1 was equivalent to 64.38 Indian rupees.
