Rakesh Jhunjhunwala-backed and other insurance companies’ shares drop up to 5% amid LIC IPO’s debut on exchanges; brokerage sees 15% upside in public insurer

 Amid the market debut of the biggest public offer of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), shares of insurance companies were trading weak as they declined up to 5 per cent on the BSE intraday during Tuesday’s trading session.  

Individually, shares of life insurance companies such as ICICI Prudential Life, SBI Life, HDFC Life fell between 1 and 2 per cent intraday, while general insurance companies’ stocks – ICIC Lombard, General Insurance Company each slipped up to 1 per cent intraday on the BSE.   

Meanwhile, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala-backed Star Health and Allied Insurance shares slipped nearly 5 per cent intraday on the BSE. 

Shares of LIC made a debut at a nearly 9% discount on the BSE and NSE on Tuesday. They got listed at Rs 867 per share on the BSE and Rs 872 per share on the NSE, against the issue price of Rs 949 per share at the upper band. 

Minutes after listing, the stock made a high of Rs 920 per share, up over 6 per cent intraday on the BSE. It was trading over 4 per cent higher of Rs 903.1 per share at around 10:27 AM as compared to over a 1 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. 

Ahead of its market debut, Macquarie had initiated LIC debut on D-street with a Neutral rating, mentioning that the large part of the company is constituted by equity MTM (mark to market) gains. 

The global brokerage said scaling up the non-par book was a challenge, and maintained a target of Rs 1000 per share, which implies an upside of 15 per cent from the listing price on exchanges. 

The initial public offering of the national insurer, which remained open between May 4 and 9, was subscribed 2.95 times on the last day. Against 16,20,78,067 shares on offer, the state-run insurer received bids for 47,83,67,010 shares.