LIC shares recover 1.88 per cent today amid reports of bonus shares, dividends

LIC Share Price Today: Shares of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) surged around 1.88 per cent today to Rs 603.85 per share from its earlier close of Rs 592.95 on Friday. The shares opened higher today at Rs 608 and touched the day's high at Rs 611 per share and finally settled for Rs 603.85 a piece. LIC shares have dipped around 35 per cent in the six months from their listing price of Rs 949 a piece in May this year. Since then, the stock has been in troubled water and had even touched its record low of Rs 588 per share.

However, with the reports claiming that the company is planning to revive the battered stock and is in the process to take several measures, the stock has gained some traction today. According to a Reuters report, LIC is planning to issue bonus shares and dividends of about Rs 1.8 lakh crore to the shareholders.  

With this, the company wants to regain the confidence of investors. On Friday, LIC shares fell to Rs 593 apiece. Since its listing in May after the IPO, LIC share prices have fallen by around 35 per cent and investors lost around Rs 2.23 lakh crore.

According to the report, LIC is planning to transfer around $22 billion from policyholders' funds to a fund meant to pay dividends or bonus shares.

The 1.8 trillion Indian rupees (around $22 billion) fund is one-sixth of the 11.57 trillion rupees LIC has in its non-participating fund. Generally, life insurance firms sell two types of products - participating and non-participating. In the participating policies, profits are shared with customers and in the non-participating policies, a fixed return is given to the subscribers. 

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However, the LIC is yet to take its board's approval for the same. If the LIC gets the approval and the fund transfer takes place, it will boost LIC's net worth by about 18 times.

On the other hand, Life Insurance Corporation of India has raised its stake in Capri Global Capital by 2 per cent over the last few months at an investment of Rs 257.37 crore. Its shareholding in Capri Global has increased from 1,24,00,000 to 1,59,51,171 equity shares, increasing its stake from 7.052 per cent to 9.072 per cent of the paid up capital of the company. Capri Global caters to different segments like MSME, construction, finance, affordable housing and indirect retail lending segments.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance has advised LIC to tweak/modernise its product portfolio to boost profitability, reported the Financial Express. This will further help the company ensure better returns to investors. LIC’s net profit jumped to Rs 682.88 crore in the June quarter from Rs 2.94 crore a year ago.