Mumbai: Refuting claims of its weak financial position, national insurer Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) on Wednesday assured its millions of policyholders that their money is safe and secure as its "financial health is sound".

The clarification came after messages on social media claimed that the corporation is in heavy losses, raising concerns over the safety of money of tens of millions of policyholders.

"We refute such false rumours and we would like to assure our policyholders about its sound financial health and urges them not to take cognizance of such misleading news," LIC said in a statement. The insurer said the news on social media are factually incorrect, uncorroborated and intend to tarnish its image and also create panic in the minds of the policyholders.

Messages also wrongly speculate about LIC's financial health and attempt to portray the largest life insurer in poor light in the eyes of its stakeholders, it said.

During 2018-19, LIC had declared the highest-ever bonus amounting to Rs 50,000 crore and upwards to its policyholders.

As of August 31, the insurer's market share, in terms of number of policies is 72.84% and in terms of first year premium it is 73.06%, the statement said.

LIC's market share in first year premium has grown from 66.24 % in March 2019 to 73.06% in August 2019, it said.

The social media messages came in after media reports said LIC has take a severe beating in his marker play to the tune of tens of thousands of crore in market value as most of the companies it has invested are trading much below its investment value.

Being the largest financial institution, LIC is also the largest investor in the equities and debt market valued at trillions of rupees.