LIC's public offer, the country's biggest-ever IPO, was fully subscribed on the second day of bidding on Thursday. Against 16,20,78,067 shares on offer, 16,25,35,125 bids were received, making the public issue fully subscribed, as per data on stock exchanges as of 6.24 pm. Of the total, the policyholders' portion was subscribed a little over three times, while that for employees was subscribed 2.14 times.

Qualified Institutional Buyer (QIB) and Non-Institutional Investor (NII) portion has received a tepid response so far. Non-institutional investors' segment was subscribed 46 per cent, while QIBs' portion was slightly lower at 40 per cent. Retail individual investors picked up nearly 91 per cent of the 6.9 crore shares set aside for this segment. 

The initial public offering (IPO) will close on May 9. The government aims to generate about Rs 21,000 crore by diluting its 3.5 per cent stake in the insurance behemoth.

LIC has fixed the price band at Rs 902-949 per equity share for the issue. The offer includes a reservation for eligible employees and policyholders. The retail investors and eligible employees will get a discount of Rs 45 per equity share, while policyholders will get a discount of Rs 60 per share.

The share sale is through an offer-for-sale (OFS) of up to 22.13 crore equity shares. The shares are likely to be listed on May 17.

Ahead of the LIC IPO, the Congress on May 3 questioned the pricing of shares, alleging they are undervalued and being offered at throwaway prices belying the trust of 30 crore policyholders. Congress general secretary and chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala asked why the government reduced LIC valuation from Rs 12-14 lakh crore in February to Rs 6 lakh crore in just two months.