New listing counters remain "listless" for better part of 1997
V S Fernando
Just a year ago, no one would have thought even in his wildest dream that our capital market would be in a bottomless pit so soon. Calendar 1995 saw more than 1400 new scrips entering the official quotation list of various stock exchanges in the country. In the next calendar year, though the market moved southward, another 1100 plus were added to the quotation list through the public issue route.Come 1997, the new listings have dropped down to just 176 which indicates a fall of 84 per cent from the previous year. Of the 176, nearly a half, or 87, of the public issues had hit the market during the previous calendar year. The balance 89 new listings are from the public issues made during calendar 1997. In 1997, only 130 pulic issues of equity and convertible debentures were floated. Of this, 10 equity issues were subsequently cancelled. Of the reportedly successful 120 issues which raised an aggregate amount of Rs 1444.45 crore from the public, 10 issues amounting to Rs 369.59 crore are not yet due for
listing as they are less than 70 days old. Twenty-one issues whose net public offer amounted to only Rs 42.68 crore are due for listing but, no listing or trading has been reported till date. This leaves only 89 listed ones whose offer amount was Rs 1032.19 crore for any worthwhile analysis. Less number of issues means more efficient handling! This has been well proved in this year's listings. Of the 89 new issues of calendar 1997 that have been listed during the year, 56 issues (63 per cent) have been listed within the stipulated period of 10 weeks plus grace period of seven days. 49 issues have completed their listings without even asking for any grace. In fact, 21 issues have listed their shares within 50 days since their closing. In this list, the most commendable one is the New Delhi based Goldline Enterprises & Securities whose issue was lead managed by Master Trust. This OTC offer has been listed in just 22 days of its closing. Among the non-OTC issues, the quickest listing is the Hyderabad based
Suryachandra Cables lead managed by Maruti Securities which took only 32 days. The laziest ones in listing are surprisingly from the country's most industrious state! Of the 89 issues, 5 have taken more than 150 days, or five months, for listing of which, as many as 4 are from Gujarat. The Ahmedabad-based SCI International Securities which claims to be in detective business has taken as many as 257 days while the Changodar-based Marvel Hi-Tech, Ahmedabad-based Cas Card Finance and Vithal Udyognagar-based Krimy Biscuits have taken 238 days, 207 days and 170 days respectively. The fifth one that falls under this category is the Calcutta-based Ekdant Capital Markets which took 151 days for listing. Interestingly, in an extremely dull stock market, a few unknown names have fetched handsome capital appreciation to the investors on listing. Pushpanjali Floriculture from Ahmedabad notched up the highest capital gain of 440 per cent on listing. This par offer commanded a maiden quote of Rs 54. It went up to Rs
57.50 within a few days of listing in June but, since then it has hardly attracted any quote. The second topper, Parnami Habitat Developers of Gurgaon, which was also offered at par, recorded a capital appreciation of 310 per cent on listing. However, that was the only quote the scrip could ever get. In fact, after getting an incredble quote in the first day of trading the scrip has been absconding from its regional stock exchange in Delhi. Scientific Instrument of Allahabad is the third topper with a capital appreciation of 75 per cent on listing. This issue, which was also offered at par, attracted a premium of Rs 7.50 on the first day of listing. But, now, it is in the long list of no trading. Among the top losers is the Indore-based Mask Investments. This par offer, lead managed by Systematix Corporate, was listed at just Rs 2 with a discount of 80 per cent. The scrip has gone into oblivion since June. The other losers have not lost much considering the general depression in the market. However, most
of these losers are now in the unending list of `no trading'. In a falling market, there are also some new listings that attract buyers at market rate many a time higher than the offer price. Infotech Enterprises from the Charminar city was listed at a premium of Rs 2.45 over the issue price of Rs 20 in May. But, now, the share is hovering above Rs 70 thereby yielding a capital appreciation of 216 per cent over the issue price. In fact, this scrip had even touched Rs 100 in October. Also, when investment related scrips are going abegging, the Mumbai-based Kolar Securities which was thrown to public at par, is now commanding a price of around Rs 31. This is Rs 19 more than its maiden quote of Rs 12 and the highest quote as well. How genuine are the maiden quotes recorded by the little known issuers can be gauged from the following. Gazi Securities of Mumbai and Sree Rayalaseema Power of Andhra Pradesh recorded their maiden quotes at their offer price of Rs 10 on listing in the month of March. Today,
while Sree Rayalaseema is languishing at one rupee, Gazi is going abegging at just 10 paise! Blue Print Securities and Om Udyog both from the City of Joy commanded a small premium (50 paise and 20 paise respectively) on listing in May and April respectively. But, today, both fail to find buyers even at a discount of more than 80 per cent. Among the premium issues of Calendar 1997, except Infotech Enterprises, no one has been able to fetch any appreciable gain to the investors. Corporation Bank has offered a small gain on listing which, considering the fluctuation in its quotes, may not be realisable in the market. A noteworthy aspect of premium listings is, all the premium issues of 1997 have recorded their maiden quotes higher than their offer price on listing. The depressing state of affairs is well reflected in the number of scrips actively traded. Of the 89 new listings from the issues made during 1997, only 19, or 21 per cent, are regularly traded as on December 22. However, in terms of amount,
it is nearly 52 per cent, or Rs 749.52 crore. Nine new listings are now not traded for a week, 12 scrips are not traded for a month, 11 are not traded for three months, 13 are not traded for six long months, 8 are absconding for more than half a year, and 17 are in the long list of `no trading'. In a nutshell, while 48 per cent of the issue amount of Rs 1445.45 crore has become `not encashable', 52 per cent of the total issue amount has fetched a capital appreciation of just Rs 52 lakh with a negligible return of 0.06 per cent! (Arranged by INVESTAR -- The Aarthik News & Research Syndicate)
Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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