Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) on Tuesday said it had invested Rs. 44,000 crore in the equity markets between April-November this year, a rise of 52% over the year-earlier period.

It had invested about Rs. 29,000 crore in the same period in the previous fiscal.

In the first half of the current fiscal, the life insurance major had more than doubled its investment in equities to Rs. 39,224 crore from Rs. 18,000 crore in the same period last fiscal.

“This year, the government’s disinvestment programme has picked up in the first half and, we, being long-term investors, have invested there,” Chairman V.K. Sharma told reporters.