Heard on the Street

Heard on the Street


Investors lap up shares of PSUs ahead of FPOs
Savvy traders are said to be accumulating shares of public sector undertakings such as NTPC, Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) and National Mining Development Corporation (NMDC), which have lined up follow-on public offerings (FPOs). Officials at investment banks say the companies will be going in for the auction method, as the government is looking to maximise its collection from the sale of shares.

Punters are betting that institutional investors will bid at a decent premium to market price if they hope to be allotted the quantity they have bid for. The highest bid could then set the benchmark for the stock price, punters feel. REC shares rose 5% to close at Rs 252.50, NMDC gained 3.6% to
close at Rs 434, and NTPC closed 1% up at Rs 233.10.

Rar(e)ing Bull, loyalists take fancy to GIC Housing
Trade volumes in the GIC Housing Finance stock have shot up over the past few sessions. The counter witnessed a few bulk deals on Thursday and Friday, with Caledonia Investments, the largest institutional investor in the company, offloading nearly 32 lakh shares of the 51 lakh shares it held in its portfolio. Stock exchange websites (BSE and NSE) have no details of the buyers.

Buzz is that the Rar(e)ing Bull and his loyalists have been accumulating the shares. The Bull has publicly said that he’s no fan of real estate companies. But it looks like he doesn’t mind betting on sectors
that stand to gain if property developers do well.

Sebi wants to trace route of mutual fund ‘trail’
Not long ago, Sebi had slammed mutual fund houses for demanding a no-objection certificate from investors who wished to change distributors. The issue is back in focus, with a section of the industry protesting that some AMCs have continued to pass on trail to the ‘old’ distributor, despite knowing that it amounts to restrictive trade practice.

Perception is that companies want to protect old distributors who had bought in the client. Talk is that the regulator is taking a serious view of the issue and is likely to check whether trail has been going to the old distributor despite an investor having indicated otherwise. The issue clearly highlights the divide between larger and smaller asset management companies (AMCs).

Contributed by Reena Zachariah, Santosh Nair & Deeptha Rajkumar

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Src: Economictimes, Deadpresident Blog and etc