Life insurers stay off stocks during boom time, invest in gilts

 Investment in market securities from these life companies has, in fact, witnessed a 13 per cent decline against the previous year, while the total fund in the sector has witnessed a 7 per cent increase, according to figures provided by Irda.

 Investment in government and other approved securities touched 70 per cent, against 58 per cent in the previous year, while investment in market securities declined from 43 per cent to 30 per cent.

 Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has life funds of Rs 2,27,764 crore, representing 99.2 per cent out of the total life funds in India at Rs 2,29,710 crore. LIC had Rs 2,14, 342 crore in the previous year, dominating the investment scene in the insurance sector. The rest of the 12 life players in the private sector contributed Rs 1,946 crore to the life funds.

 LIC invested around 64 per cent (52.9 per cent) of its life funds in government and other approved securities. It invested around 13.6 per cent (12.9 per cent) in infrastructure.

 The insurance major