The country's largest insurer LIC today said its total investments in the market will

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cross Rs 2 lakh crore this fiscal.

"Our investments will be more than last year... We will top last year's total investment of Rs 2 lakh crore this year," LIC Managing Director Thomas Mathew told reporters on the sidelines of a Ficci event here.

He said the company had invested Rs 40,000 crore in equities last fiscal and this year, it will be above that.

LIC is the largest domestic institutional investor in the Indian market.

As per the Insurance Act, 50 per cent of investments made by an insurance company have to be in government securities and about 15 per cent in infrastructure-related areas.

The balance 35 per cent can be invested in other areas like equities and debentures.

"Depending on business, we will decide on this year's investment. Hopefully, business will be good this year," Mathew said.

Mathew said LIC will participate in the government's Rs 40,000 crore disinvestment programme in the current fiscal.

"Earlier, we participated in all the government public offers. This year also, when government public offers come, we will participate," Mathew said.

The government plans to raise Rs 40,000 crore through a stake sale in different PSUs in 2011-12. So far this fiscal, it has already raised over Rs 1,100 crore through divestment of its stake in Power Finance Corporation.

Public stake sales by a host of companies, like ONGC, SAIL, Hindustan Copper, BHEL and NBCC, among others, are also in the pipeline.