LIC prunes Reliance Ind stake; FIIs hike more in Q4

LIC lowered its stake in Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) with sale of shares worth an estimated Rs 500 crore during the previous quarter, but foreign investors raised their holding by more than Rs 1,200 crore during the same period.

As per its latest shareholding pattern, filed by RIL with the stock exchanges on Tuesday, LIC’s stake in the firm dipped from 7.31 per cent to 7.09 per cent during the January-March, 2012 quarter.

During the same quarter, the total holding of foreign institutional investors (FIIs) in the company rose from 17.03 per cent to 17.55 per cent.

As per RIL’s current valuation of Rs 2,44,412 crore, the decline of 0.22 per cent stake in LIC’s holding would be worth over Rs 500 crore. On the other hand, the increase of about 0.52 per cent in the FII holding is estimated to be worth over Rs 1,200 crore.

Among individual foreign shareholders, the holding of the Government of Singapore in RIL rose to 1.16 per cent during the quarter, from 1.09 at the end of previous quarter.

Also, the stake of Franklin Templeton Investment Funds rose to 1.22 per cent, from 1.08 per cent.

The total holding of domestic institutional investors declined from 11.35 per cent to 10.71 per cent.

For the fiscal ended March 31, 2012, the FII holding declined marginally from 17.7 per cent to 17.55 per cent, while that of domestic institutional investors also dipped from 10.79 per cent to 10.71 per cent.