MUMBAI, May 1: The absence of bond issues in April resulted in an extremely low level of mobilisation through public issue, which aggregated a meagre Rs 82 crore, according to Prithvi Haldea of Prime Database.

This was a substantial fall from Rs 1, 281 crore in March, Rs 828 crore in February and Rs 901 crore in January; these high mobilisations coming about mainly due to mega debt issues, he said.

The largest issue in April was for only Rs 42.31 crore from Krishna Filaments, the remaining 15 issues were all under Rs 5 crore each, according to the study conducted by Prime.

The lack of premium issues was conspicious, with only one such issue in April (Century Plyboards at a premium of Rs 10) and only seven hitting the primary market in the last six months, three of which have been from the public sector, the study said.

The prime study reveals that in April, only 18 % of the total mobilisation was from the financial sector.

According to Haldea the future holds little promise as the number of public issue documents being submitted for clearance to Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has been rapidly declining.

``Not more than 10 issues are expected to hit the market in May. All these are small issues and no mega or even medium size issue from the private sector is foreseeable in future,'' he said.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.