Mumbai: Corporate investment's in the country's power sector topped Rs195,000 crore in the first half of the year, about a third of all corporate investments in this period, according to a report published by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham).

Out of Rs6,33,906 crore of total corporate investments proposed in the first six months of calendar 2008, power sector attracted the maximum number of investment announcements totaling Rs1,95,913 crore, says the Assocham study.

Power sector attracted 30.09 per cent of the total corporate investments during the first six months of 2008, the Assocham report said.

Much investments flowed into realty, steel, retail and telecom, which together saw capital expenditure plans worth Rs633,000 crore during the six-month period, the report said.

''With power sector on the top of priority of the policy makers, huge investments have been planned by various corporates, which include Tata Power, Sterlite Industries, Jindal India Thermal Power and the Lanco Group," said Sajjan Jindal, president of Assocham.

The realty sector ranked second, attracting Rs151,000 crore for the next two to five years. ''Rising income levels and growing middle class have generated massive demand in the realty sector in the recent past," the Assocham report said.

The sector had a share of 14.38 per cent in the total investments proposed by major real estate companies, including Omaxe Ltd, Uppal Group Developers, Mahindra World City etc.

Investments in steel sector rose to Rs108,000 crore -  nearly 10.33 per cent of the total capex planned in the first half of 2008 - from companies including such majors as Vedanta Resources, Tata Steel, Bhushan Steel, JSW Steel etc.

Retail sector, which is growing at an estimated 25 per cent, attracted investment proposals worth Rs89,200 crore during the period.

Major investors included Reliance Retail, Parsvanath Developers and Videocon Industries Ltd.

The telecom sector attracted investments worth Rs89,100 crore - with a share of 8.48 per cent in total investments proposed - while major investors included Reliance Communication, Airtel and Quippo Telecom Infrastructure.

Industries in the oil and gas sector proposed investments totaling Rs88,790 crore for the first six months of 2008 over the next two to five years; mainly for setting up refineries, expansion of pipeline to increase the oil production by companies like Hindujas and ONGC, Reliance Industries, OIC etc.

With a number of automobile companies announcing substantial capacity expansion as well as investments in R&D, the automobile sector attracted investments announcements worth Rs49,529 crore for the next two to eight years. The investments made by the automobiles majors included Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki Ltd, fiat India, Mahindra & Mahindra.

IT sector companies have lined up Rs39,654 crore capex plans for the period January-June 2008 for expansion, up-gradation and setting up of IT parks, software development centres and software delivery centres over the next two to ten years.

In order to meet the rising domestic consumption needs and at the same time strive for global competitiveness, companies in the construction and manufacturing sector announced capex worth Rs36,790 crore for the next two to five years for expansion of metals, electricity generation operations and setting up facilities for aluminum smelter and captive power plant, setting up factory for carbon black.

Ports and shipping sector with a share of 2.84 per cent in capex announcements ranked tenth in terms of top ten sectors attracting investments from the Indian companies. The sector announced investment plan worth Rs30,690 crore by major companies like Essar Shipping Ports, Jindal Saw (JSL), Shipping Corporation of India, JSW Infrastructure for the development of ports, setting up ship building and repair hub, deep water port etc.

The other prominent sectors that saw major investments proposals during the period  were energy (Rs28,100 crore), cement (Rs26,762 crore), hospitality (Rs23,340 crore), logistics (Rs23,200 crore), aviation (Rs20,890 crore), metals and mining (Rs8,500 crore), engineering (Rs7,435 crore), consumer durables (Rs6,000 crore), pharmaceuticals (Rs 4,475 crore) and education (Rs2,796 crore).