Making most of the rally in the stock market during last four months including the post general election Sensex rally, the largest capital market players Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) has made a fast buck of Rs 2,800 crore.

The corporation has remained a net buyer in stock market and has said no to any investment in ?Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) issues.

The corporation has also invested big time in corporate bonds. N Mohan Raj, executive director investment-operations) said, ?The average yield on corporate bonds we got during the last fiscal was in the range of 12 to 14.7%. This fiscal, we have booked a profit of Rs 2, 800 crore as on Friday. Actually we have been net buyers for quite some time now. Normally we buy the shares of those companies that are having the rating as AAA or AA. Also, we have witnessed a growth of 88% in our investment in the corporate bonds during the first quarter. We do not participate in QIP. Most of our debt is in HTM category. We are also looking at investing in private equities and venture funds during the current fiscal.??

LIC chairman TS Vijayan said though the business in the life insurance sector normally remains low key in the first quarter and picks up gradually during the successive quarters only, LIC has observed a growth of 20% in the first year premium during the first quarter of the current financial year. The sale of LIC?s stake in UTI MF was yet to be completed, he said .

The LIC is expecting a total business, including renewal of premia as well as first year premia, to be around Rs 1,75,000 crore by the end of the current fiscal.

On the total investment LIC would make Vijayan said the corporation has a plan to invest Rs 50,000 crore in the equities. ?In case we find that the corporate bonds will give us good yields then we may migrate to it,?? said Vijayan. The other sectors the corporation is looking for investment include government securities and oil bonds. ?Whenever stock market falls it is the time for buying for us,?? he said.

Meanwhile, post buying out of the Lehman operations in India Japanese major Nomura Securities will expand its investment banking operations in the country. ?Nomura wants to bring in more faces for its back-end office in India. Moreover, Nomura wants to bring in some of its global funds to be lunched by LIC mutual fund.

The idea is to make our India operations more competitive. India is very important country for us,?? said Takumi Shibata, deputy president & chief operating officer (COO), Nomura Holdings who was in the city to participate in the function to announce the partnership between LIC MF and Nomura Asset Management Company. Nomura has signed an agreement with LIC mutual fund (MF) to acquire 35% stake in LIC for a consideration of Rs 308 crore .

At present in India while 2000 persons are working at the back office, 150 persons are involved in the investment banking operations of Nomura. In the joint venture, the chief investment officer dealing with equity will be from Nomura, while the chief investment officer for debt will be from LIC.It is important to find a local market to know all the aspects of the stock market, said Shibata.

He further added India is the fastest growing economy in the world and one of the important players in G-20. ?In the coming days we want to contribute as much we can in the Indian capital markets and it have a huge market. This is our first ever joint-venture in India and it is very important country for Nomura,? added Shibata.