LIC Invests Rs 8,000 Crore In Indian IT Stocks Despite Foreign Investors Dumping Them In Last Quarter

The April-June quarter saw Indian IT sector stocks see a contrasting approach taken by India's insurance giant LIC when compared to foreign investors.

Life Corporation of India (LIC) went on a shopping spree into territory where not many dare to go, especially in the last quarter.

LIC Invests Rs 8,000 Crore Into IT Stocks

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LIC made fresh investments worth thousands of crores in the IT sector in the June quarter. While analysts have turned cautious about the sector, the country¡¯s largest life insurer has shown confidence in the IT space by pumping in Rs 8,000 crore in some of India's biggest IT tech companies.

LIC bought shares worth Rs 3,636 crore in Infosys, Rs 1,973 crore in Tata Consultancy Services, Rs 1,468 crore in Tech Mahindra, and Rs 979 crore in HCL Technologies, according to a Prime database report.

This comes amidst the Indian IT industry hitting a rough patch in previous quarters, battling stagnant revenue and profit growth fueled by fears of a slowdown in the US and Europe, its biggest markets, as rising interest rates bite. For example, Infosys shares crashed more than 10% in early April after lower than expected Q4 financial results (March quarter) and a dismal revenue outlook. It had highlighted the impact of banking turmoil in major markets, including the United States and Europe.

For the June quarter, insurance giant LIC recently reported a 14-fold surge in profit at Rs 9,544 crore in Q1 of FY24. It also sold shares worth Rs 1,932 crore in Bajaj Auto in that quarter, as per the Moneycontrol report.

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Also Read: List Of India's Top 10 Companies In Terms Of Brand Value 2023

Foreign Investors Dump IT Stocks In June Quarter

Contrary to what LIC did, foreign institutional investors, or FIIs, decided to dump their stakes in major Indian IT stocks.

ET

As per the ET report, in the June quarter, FIIs sold IT stocks worth over Rs 9,000 crore, with Infosys and Tech Mahindra being the least-liked stocks. TCS too saw a marginal quarterly drop in FII shareholding from 12.72% to 12.46%. The June quarter shareholding pattern data shows that FIIs pared their stake in Infosys by another 165 bps to 33.44%. In the case of Tech Mahindra, FII holdings went down by 118 bps to 25.69%.

Out of the 10 Nifty IT stocks, Wipro, which underwent a share buyback in June, and HCL Technologies are the only two counters where foreign investors saw some hope as their holdings went up marginally by 6-7 bps.

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