LIC throws up a challenge for FII bears. Will the contra bet pay off?

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) used FII selling worth Rs 9,000 crore as an opportunity to load up tech stocks. An analysis of the June quarter shareholding pattern shows that LIC raised ownership in all the seven largest IT stocks in Q1 ahead of their troublesome report cards. Tech Mahindra, whose Q1 revenue declined 4.2% quarter-on-quarter in CC and missed estimates, saw the biggest quarter-on-quarter increase in LIC holding by 140 basis points to 9.47%.

At the same, FII holding in Tech Mahindra went down 118 bps to 25.69% during the quarter. The state-owned insurer's stake in LTTS rose 117 bps to 5.7%, Infosys 64 bps to 8.83%, HCL Tech 32 bps to 4.55%, LTIMindtree 24 bps to 3.36%, Wipro 17 bps to 4.59% and TCS 16 bps to 4.63%. Out of these 7 stocks, Infosys is the only one that has given a negative return of around 10% in the calendar year 2023.

Tech Mahindra is up 13% and is the best performer largecap IT stock in LIC's portfolio.LIC vs FII When it comes to IT stocks, which have long been the favourite of both the big boys of Dalal Street, LIC and FII are on opposite sides. With Infosys and Tech Mahindra being on top of their sell list, FIIs sold IT stocks worth over Rs 9,000 crore in Q1. June quarter shareholding pattern data shows that FIIs pared their stake in Infosys by another 165 bps to 33.44%.