LIC sees small gain in ONGC investment till March

The insurance giant had picked up 84% of ONGC's share sale in March

Country's largest insurer LIC has seen a marginal appreciation in its investment in oil major ONGC till March 31, 2012.

"The amount of money invested by LIC in ONGC shares till March 31, 2012, is Rs 20,493.60 crore. The value of this investment as on March 31, 2012, is Rs 21,752.91 crore," Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

In March, the government had raised Rs 12,767 crore through auctioning OF ONGC shares, and LIC had subscribed to a huge chunk of the issue.

While the ONGC share sale was subscribed 98.3%, LIC had picked up over 84% of the shares on offer. The remaining was bought by institutional and retail investors.

Following this, LIC's stake in ONGC had gone up to 9.48%. As per the IRDA norms, insurers cannot hold more than 10% stake in any company.

In a separate reply, Meena said the total outstanding investment of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) in PSUs as on March 31, 2012, was in profit.

"The book value of the total outstanding investment as on March 31, 2012, was Rs 59,116.36 crore and its market value was Rs 59,851.16 crore," Meena said.