LIC lists at a discount; brokers say price could pickup once intra-day selling subsides

The listing of India’s largest life insurance company LIC failed to cheer the D-street on Tuesday as the stock was listed at ₹867 on the BSE, which is 8.64 percent discount to its IPO price of ₹949.

LIC, which is also touted as India’s sovereign wealth fund for its deep pocketed stock market investments, had given shares at a 10 percent discount on the IPO price to retail investors and LIC policy holders.

The share price of LIC struggled to remain above ₹900 during the initial trading on the stock exchanges.

Brokers, however, say that once those expecting flipping gains move out, LIC price could rise.

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The ₹21,000-crore IPO of LIC had witnessed good response from the investors with nearly 3 times subscription.

Market regulator SEBI had allowed a 6-day subscription period from May 4 to 9 for the IPO and also extended the daily timings.

The shares which are to be allocated for the qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) were subscribed 2.83 times, while those of non institutional investors were subscribed 2.91 times and that of retail individual investors (RIIs) were subscribed 1.99 times.

The policyholders portion was subscribed 6.12 times, while the employees segment was subscribed 4.40 times.

Huge intra-day selling was always expected in the counter. Once the selling is done, the share price could stabilise, brokers said.    

Santosh Meena, Head of Research, Swastika Investments said: “The current market is not conducive for primary issues and LIC being the largest IPO has witnessed a negative listing. Those who applied for listing gains can maintain a stop loss of ₹800.”

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