Shares of ICICI Bank will remain in focus on Monday after the Reserve Bank of India approved Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) to acquire an aggregate holding of up to 9.99% of the paid-up share capital or voting rights in the private lender.
RBI’s approval allows the insurance behemoth to acquire the stake within one year from the date of the letter dated September 4, failing which the central bank's approval will stand cancelled. The approval is subject to certain conditions, including compliance with applicable statutory and regulatory provisions, ICICI Bank said in an exchange filing released on Saturday.
LIC held a little over 4% stake in ICICI Bank at the end of the April-June quarter of the ongoing financial year 2027, according to data on the company’s shareholding pattern available on NSE. SBI Insurance Company meanwhile held over 1% stake. Among the mutual funds, SBI Mutual Fund owned more than 6% stake, while ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund, HDFC Mutual Fund, Kotak Mutual Fund, Nippon Life India Mutual Fund, UTI Mutual Fund, SBI Mutual Fund and Axis Mutual Fund held 1-6% stake each.
The stake acquisition comes nearly a month after LIC amassed more than Rs 21,000 crore in mark-to-market gains in just 35 days from three software exporters, delivering a rapid payoff on a contrarian wager made while AI disruption fears were clouding the outlook for India’s technology industry. The market value of LIC’s holdings in Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys and HCL Technologies climbed to Rs 1.26 lakh crore on Aug. 4 from Rs 1.05 lakh crore at the end of June, translating into a combined paper gain of Rs 21,032 crore, according to an ET report dated August 6.
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ICICI Bank shares have fallen more than 2% in the past week but gained 6% overall in 2026 so far. Over the past one year, the shares of the heavyweight private lender have gained around 1.5%.
In the longer term, ICICI Bank shares have delivered positive returns of more than 47% in three years and around 99% in five years. The company has a market capitalisation of more than Rs 10.21 lakh crore.
Brokerages remain bullish on the shares of ICICI Bank. Nomura prefers ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank among large banks, and IDFC First Bank, Federal Bank and IndusInd Bank within mid-tier banks. It however excluded HDFC Bank from its preferred picks largely on account of succession overhang.
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Disclosure: This article has been written by Debaroti Adhikary, who is not a Sebi-registered Research Analyst or an investment advisor. Debaroti Adhikary does not hold any financial interest in the company named in the article as of the date of publication. The views/recommendations mentioned in this article, wherever applicable, are those of the respective Sebi-registered Research Analyst/brokerage and have been reproduced/reported with due attribution. They should not be construed as the views or recommendations of the EconomicTimes Digital or the journalist. Readers are advised to consider the original research report and make their investment decisions based on their own assessment.
