Public sector insurance behemoth Life Insurance Corporation of India has lost a six per cent marketshare to its private counterparts in the first six months of the current fiscal against a seven per cent loss in 2002-03.

The insurance giant, which held around a 87 per cent share in terms of premium income in March 2004, has seen its share steadily falling to 81 per cent by September, according to data released by the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority.

With respect to the number of polices sold in the first six months, the fall was a little less at three per cent.

LIC recorded a 91.16 per cent share in September against 94.21 per cent in March end. LIC has lost marketshare this year at a comparatively faster pace than it did in the previous fiscal.

In 2002-03 LIC's share in terms of premium income was around 94 per cent, which declined to 87.04 per cent in 2003-04 -- a 7 per cent fall against a total decline of six per cent in the first six months of the current fiscal.

By the end of September LIC lost a 19 per cent share to its private counterparts. For group insurance schemes, the company has lost over 30 per cent to private players by September.

In the first six months of the current fiscal, private insurers managed to take away around 4.5 per cent of LIC's share in the group policy business.

SBI Life emerged as the single-largest private sector group insurer at a 12.41 per cent market share.

During the first six months as much as 20 per cent of the policies were underwritten in the rural sector, garnering a total premium of Rs 533 crore (Rs 5.33 billion), while as many as 798,000 policies were sold in the social sector.

Private players ICICI Prudential's market share has crossed the five-per cent mark, while Birla Sunlife managed to become the second-largest private player with a 2.81 per cent stake followed by Bajaj Alliance at 2.26 per cent.

The life insurance segment wrote a total premium of Rs 8,245 crore (Rs 82.45), of which the private segment wrote Rs 1,592 crore (Rs 15.92 billion) policies. The life insurance industry sold 89.75 lakh (Rs 8.97 million) policies in the first-half of the current month and the private sector companies managed 793,000 polices.