ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, in which private sector lender ICICI Bank holds 54.89 per cent stake, gained handsomely on the BSE on Monday (February 6) with the stock hitting a new 52-week high of Rs 368 but gave up the gains later to close at Rs 364. ICICI Bank shares closed 3.4 per cent higher at Rs 291. It may be recalled that ICICI Prudential Life had a tepid listing last September.
Read: ICICI Prudential Life shares spurt on Modi Govt approving listing of PSU insurance firms
Prudential Corporation Holdings has about 26 per cent stake in the private life insurance company.
The BSE Sensex closed 199 points higher at 28,439 while the NSE Nifty was up 60 points at 8,801. Top Sensex gainers were Sun Pharma, ICICI Bank and Adani Ports.
Last month, the Union Cabinet had approved 25 per cent stake sale in five public sector insurance firms — New India Assurance Company, United India Insurance Company, Oriental Insurance Company, National Insurance Company and General Insurance Corporation of India.
"The shareholding of these Public Sector General Insurance Companies (PSGICs) will be divested from 100 per cent to 75 per cent in one or more tranches over a period of time," the government had said in an official statement on January 18, 2017.
The disinvestment target for FY2018 is Rs 72,500 crore, as mentioned in the Union Budget 2017.
How BRICS stock markets indices performed
In January 2017, the BSE Sensex was the second-best performer among the BRICS countries with a return of four per cent, with Brazil's Bovespa delivering a return of seven per cent and China's HSCEI coming third with a gain of three per cent, according to an update by IDBI Capital Markets & Securities.
In India, the metal Index was the outperformer with a gain of 15.4 per cent driven by uptick in global metal prices, the brokerage added.
The next big trigger for stock markets would be the stance of the RBI's MPC when its meets for its sixth bi-monthly monetary policy meeting on Tuesday-Wednesday, the last for this fiscal.
Investors and analysts would also be keen to know the RBI's comment on demonetisation to ascertain the windfall or "fiscal dividend" to the Modi government.
The demonetised notes (Rs 500 and Rs 1,000) not returned to the banking system would constitute the windfall.
