LIC taking advantage of market fall, buying stocks: Roy

The recent fall in stock markets is a good buying opportunity for long-term investors, and LIC has been been buying stocks, said Chairman S K Roy on Monday. “The volatility is not a cause of concern but a buying opportunity for long-term investors. If you look at BSE data, we have been buying shares for the past many days,” he told reporters after meeting Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Asked about LIC’s plan for the disinvestment programme of the government, Roy said LIC will pick up shares on a “case-to-case” basis.

“We don’t have a separate corpus for investment in  public sector undertakings. But look at data, all our investment in PSUs so far are giving positive returns,” he said.

The BSE Sensex today closed below the 25,000-mark, losing 308 points in a day. At 24,893.81, this is the lowest closing in 15 months for the Sensex, which has lost almost all the gains since the relief rally from May 26, 2014, when Narendra Modi was sworn in as the Prime Minister.

The NSE Nifty too couldn't take the selling pressure and cracked below the 7,600-mark, sinking to the lowest in 13 months.