LIC shares rise 4% after Q4 PAT jumps multifold

Shares of insurance behemoth Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) rose nearly 4% to Rs 615.6 in Thursday's intraday trade on BSE after the firm reported a standalone net profit of Rs 13,428 crore for the quarter ended March. The profit grew 466% from Rs 2,371 crore in the same quarter of last year.


However, its net premium income fell 8% to Rs 1.31 lakh crore during the March quarter, compared with Rs 1.43 lakh crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.


LIC's first-year premium during the reporting quarter stood at Rs 12,811 crore, down 12% from Rs 14,614 crore in the year-ago quarter.

Income from investments rose marginally to Rs 67,846 crore for the January-March period versus Rs 67,498 crore in the same period last year.

Net commission during the quarter rose 5% to Rs 8,428 crore. The same stood at Rs 7,996 crore in the previous year's period. For the full year, the insurer's profit declined 10% to Rs 36,397 crore as against Rs 40,431 crore reported in fiscal 2022.

The board has recommended a final dividend of Rs 3 per equity share with a face value of Rs 10 each for the year ended March 2023.

At 9.53 am, the stock was trading 2.2% higher at Rs 606.6 on BSE. On a year-to-date basis, the stock has declined 15%, while it has dropped 26% in the last one year.

As per Trendlyne data, the average target price of LIC is Rs 798, which shows an upside potential of 32% from the current market prices.

The consensus recommendation from 15 analysts for the stock is a Buy. Out of these analysts, 12 have strong buy and buy ratings, while three have hold ratings.

Technically, the day RSI (14) is at 75. The RSI below 30 is considered oversold and above 70 is overbought, Trendlyne data showed. MACD is at 2.7, which is above its center and signal Line, this is a bullish indicator.

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