After the government’s new excise duty on cigarettes, there has been a huge decline in ITC shares in two days. This has had a direct impact on the investment of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC). On January 2, ITC shares fell 5 percent to their new 52-week low of Rs 345.25 per share. However, there was some recovery later. ITC shares fell by more than 14 percent in the first two trading sessions of the year 2026 alone.

There was a stir due to the fall of shares

According to the data of shareholding pattern for July-September quarter (FY26), 100 percent stake of ITC is held by public shareholders. It has no promoter or promoter group. LIC alone holds 15.86 percent stake in ITC, while General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC) holds 1.73 percent and The New India Assurance Company Limited holds 1.4 percent.

LIC has suffered a paper loss of Rs 11,468 crore due to the sale of ITC shares. Where at the closing level of December 31, the total value of LIC’s stake in ITC was Rs 80,028 crore. At the same time, now it is at a record low of Rs 68,560 crore.

In this way, due to the sale of ITC shares, Rs 13,740 crore was wiped out from the portfolio of these three government insurance companies in just two days. It is important to note here that this is a notional loss. Unless insurance companies sell shares at the 52-week low level, it will be considered a paper loss only.

ITC loss of Rs 72000 crore

ITC shares fell almost 4 percent on January 2 and closed at Rs 350.10 per share. The stock has fallen more than 13 percent in the last five days and more than 15 percent in the last six months. Due to this, Rs 72,000 crore has been reduced from the market capitalization of the company in two days, which is now approximately Rs 4,38,639 crore. The current P/E ratio of the stock is 22.59.

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