The result: Shree Digvijay's scrip has shot up by over 50 per cent in the last six sessions on the National Stock Exchange. The open offer at Rs 142.30, announced on July 6, was way above the then prevailing prices of Rs 46 on the Bombay Stock Exchange and Rs 58.45 on the NSE. There were no sellers on the BSE with the last traded price being Rs 46 on July 3.

At the current price on the NSE, investors would settle for a loss of around Rs42 per share if only their bid is accepted in the open offer.

The activity in the counter picked up on July 16 when 34,000 shares were traded on the NSE at a closing price of Rs 92.75. On July 17 the scrip touched a high of Rs 100, though it closed at Rs 95.30 with a volume of 26,000 shares. Though the scrip was not traded soon after the announcement of the open offer, a few hundered shares (some times just 50 shares) started trickling into the market. But every trickle was at a premium. Thus the scrip has been rising from Rs 63.15 on July 9 to Rs 95.30 today.

Since the Grasim open offer is pegged at 20 per cent and the current public holding is 34 per cent, the entire public stake will not be bought by the Aditya Birla group company. This is likely to force some shareholders to sell below the open offer price in the secondary market, which in turn will give a fillip to the price on the bourses.

Even before the open offer was announced the Shree Digvijay counter had given an exit opportunity toinvestors with a 100 per cent rise in price in 15 trading sessions.

The market had probably got a wind of the impending offer price, which was way above the closing price of Rs 23.05 on BSE on June 10. The scrip has been in a buy mode since June 10 and moved up to Rs 45.90 on July 3.