The initial public offering (IPO) of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) made an excellent start on Wednesday with the portion reserved for policyholders and employees being over-subscribed, even as retail investors and even qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) showed a good response.

Overall, the float was subscribed by 67 per cent despite the benchmark index collapsing by around 1307 points as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) unexpectedly raised the repo rate by an hefty 40 basis points.

Experts said that one of the positive takeaway on the opening day was the strong participation of QIBs and non-institutional investors who usually come in on the last day.

Incidentally, the IPO will also be open for subscription by retail investors till Saturday as well. “It is a very good sign that despite what is happening in the secondary markets, QIPs and high net worth individuals (HNI) participation are coming on the first day itself. This is unusual at least in recent times,’’ a market expert said.

According to data available from stock exchanges, the offer received bids for 10,86,45,360 shares against the offered 16,20,78,067 equity shares excluding shares offered to anchor investors on Monday. The IPO is through an offer-for-sale (OFS) of up to 221,374,920 equity shares in a price band of Rs 902-949 per share.

As anticipated earlier, there was a robust response from policyholders with their portion being subscribed 1.99 times. As against 2,21,37,492 shares reserved for this category, they bid for 4,40,31,225 shares. Similarly, the portion reserved for eligible employees was subscribed 1.17 times. Here, while 15,81,249 shares were reserved for this segment, bids came in for 18,53,430 shares.

Similarly, retail investors bid 0.60 times the shares reserved for them, as they bid for 4,16,25,285 shares against the reserved amount of 6,91,79,663 shares. On the other hand, the portion set aside for non-institutional investors was subscribed 0.27 times while that meant for QIBs portion saw subscription of 0.33 times. Market circles expect the retail interest and that from long-term institutional investors to remain strong despite stocks coming under pressure due to the RBI action.

On Monday, LIC had raised Rs 5,627 crore from anchor investors, who were allotted 5,92,96,853 equity shares at the upper price band of Rs 949 per share. Many brokerages have recommended that investors subscribe to the IPO given the corporation’s strong position and the potential for life insurance in India.