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Mumbai: Insurance behemoth LIC opted for profit-booking by selling its equity stakes in companies during the March quarter, a report said on Monday.

The IPO-bound company’s stakes in 296 companies where it holds over 1% stake slipped to an all-time low of 3.66%  at the end of March as against 3.70% in December, the report by Prime Database said.

Pranav Haldea, the managing director of Prime Database Group attributed this to profit-booking by India’s largest institutional investor, adding that the stake held had touched an all-time high of 5% in 2012.

Interestingly, in value terms there was an increase in the equity assets held by the state-run company at an all-time high of Rs 7.24 lakh crore in March, which represents a 6.30% increase, it said, pointing out that market benchmarks Sensex and Nifty rose by 3.70% and 5.10%, respectively, during this period.

Holdings by insurance companies declined to a 5-year low of 4.80% as on March 31, down from 5% at the end of December 31, 2020. In value terms, it went up by 3.09% from the previous quarter to an all-time high of Rs 9.48 lakh crore as on March 31, 2021.

LIC accounts for over three-fourths of the overall value of the stakes held by insurance companies in equities, it added.

Mutual funds’ holding reduced to 7.23% as on March 31, 2021 down from 7.42% as on December 31, 2020, and Haldea said that this is the fourth straight quarter where the MFs have sold their holdings after 24 continuous quarters of an increase.

However, in value terms, the holding of domestic mutual funds went up by 4.81% to Rs 14.30 lakh crore on March 31, 2021 from Rs 13.64 lakh crore on December 31, 2021.

Net outflows by domestic mutual funds stood at Rs 26,810 crore during the quarter, as retail investors booked profits.

On the back of a decrease in holdings of mutual funds and insurance companies, holding of domestic institutional investors (DII), which includes domestic mutual funds, insurance companies, banks, financial institutions, pension funds also decreased to a 10-quarter low of 13.03% as on March 31, 2021 from 13.56% as on December 31, 2020.

Net outflows of DIIs stood at Rs 23,124 crore during the quarter, while in value terms, DII holding went up to an all-time high of Rs 25.75 lakh crore as on March 31, 2021, which is an increase of 3.27% over the last quarter.

Haldea said foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) holdings stood at 22.60% as on March 31, 2021, down from 22.74% as on December 31, 2020, despite net inflows of Rs 55,741 crore during the quarter.

In rupee value terms, FPI ownership also reached an all-time high of Rs 44.66 lakh crore as on March 31, 2021, up 6.77% from Rs 41.83 lakh crore as on December 31, 2020.

The percentage holding of the government (as promoter) in companies listed on NSE increased to 5.60% as on March 31, 2021, from 5.22% as on December 31, 2020.

Retail investors’ holding went down in 713 companies despite a 15.57% increase in their stock prices, and went up in 863 companies which had the share prices move up by 5.52%, Haldea said, adding that this validates the oft-used phrase that retail buys at the peak and sells at lows.