The seven companies raised a meagre amount of Rs 124 crore in the first quarter, Prime said adding of these only four were from the manufacturing sector.

In contrast, fund mobilisation through the debt route in the first quarter was a high of 86 per cent of the total mobilisation, similar to 86 per cent in full of last fiscal.

But for the mobilisation by financial institutions and private, public setor banks, the overall picture would have been very dismal, Prime said.

According to Prime, public issues of Abhishek Spinfab (Rs19.86 crore) and Welspun Syntex (Rs 37.60 crore) bombed in the market and the promoters were forced to go through the devolvement route. Prime blamed a combination of factors including investors' apathy consequent to the phenomenal losses in the 1993-95 period, lack of investor confidence in market practices, over-stringent entry barrier guidelines and lack of severe punishment to errant promoters for the current state.

The only issue which generated good response was the one from J & K bank. This, Prime said, should not denote any kind of revival because being a bank issue, it "catered more to the distraught investors' need for high safety rather than returns which normally drives the equity market". One of the main reasons for the continuing fall in IPOs is the dominance of debt.