NEW DELHI: Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) is no longer in the list of top 10 listed companies in terms of market capitalisation (m-cap). The state-run insurance behemoth has been replaced by Bajaj Finance and Adani Transmission as its share prices are yet to see an uptick and have fallen 23% since its listing on May 17.
This is a sharp fall given LIC had entered the bourses as India’s 5th most valuable company, with an m-cap of Rs 5.48 lakh crore. LIC’s m-cap now stands at Rs 4.26 lakh crore and is placed in the 11th spot in the highest m-cap list. Adani Transmission is now the country’s 9th most listed firm with a market value of Rs 4.43 lakh crore, while Bajaj Finance took the 10th spot with a total m-cap of Rs 4.42 lakh crore as on August 30, showed BSE data.
The fall in the valuation of LIC is a setback for its biggest stakeholder, the Government of India, as further dilution in the firm may fall short of its divestment plans. The company’s share prices on Tuesday closed at Rs 753 apiece, a drop of 29% when compared with its allotted IPO price of Rs 949.
The company recently reported a sharp drop in its sequential quarterly profit- from Rs 2,371 crore in Q4FY2023 to `683 crore in Q1FY2023. LIC also registered a sequential slump in almost every key parameter. Mukesh Ambani’s RIL remains the country’s most-valued Indian company with a market capitalisation of Rs 17.8 lakh crore, followed by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), HDFC Bank, Infosys, Hindustan Unilever (HUL), ICICI Bank, State Bank of India (SBI), and HDFC.
However, RIL’s m-cap is now significantly lower than rival billionaire Gautam Adani promoted Adani Group, whose seven firms are traded separately on the exchanges. The combined m-cap of seven Adani firms, as per the BSE data, stood at Rs 20.32 lakh crore on August 30 as against Rs 16.94 lakh crore on July 29 last month.
LIC M-CAP