Future Protected: HDFC Bank, RIL, Infosys top holdings of private insurers

HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, and Infosys are the three most-owned stocks by the top five private insurance companies in the country - ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company (ICICI Pru Life), SBI Life, HDFC Life Insurance Company, Tata AIA Life Insurance, and Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance Company (Kotak Life).

Their holdings in these three blue-chip companies are over a tenth of their equity assets under management (AUM).

Top insurers have parked nearly a fourth of their AUM in the top 10 stocks, reveals an analysis by Nuvama Institutional Equities (Nuvama).

Playing safe, insurance companies have largely restricted their top holdings to the country’s mega-cap stocks.

In terms of sectoral positioning, most private insurers were underweight on the banking pack vis-à-vis the sector’s weight in the Nifty 100 Index.

Only Kotak Life has an equal weighting in the sector at 23.9 per cent.

ICICI Pru Life is the most underweight at 15.4 per cent, according to Numava.

All five insurance firms were overweight on the automotive and fast-moving consumer goods sectors. Alternatively, all were underweight in oil and gas and power stocks.

Meanwhile, four of five were underweight on the information technology and metal sectors.