With investors keeping away and the stock markets also suffering, the primary market witnessed an extremely low level of activity for the 13th month in succession in July 98 which saw only a single issue. A total of 37 issues were seen since July 1997.

Prime said the dismal scenario has forced the corporate sector to either shelve or defer their fund raising plans. Funds raised by the manufacturing sector have fallen from 83 per cent in 1994-95 to nine per cent in the first four months of 1998-99.

However, financial institutions and private/public sector banks continued to assume a dominant role in the fundmobilisation exercise with their rising from a meagre four per cent in 1994-95 to a massive 91 per cent in the four months, it says.

Significant features during the first four months have been the monopoly of government in the capital market with an 88 per cent share and the dominance of debt offerings at 81 per cent of the total offerings. The share of debt offering in 1994-95 was nil.

The initial public offerings (IPOs) or the first public issues from unlisted companies have reduced drastically from a high of 1350 in 1995-96 to only 51 in 1997-98 and 7 in the first four months of current fiscal, Prime said.

The dismal performance so far in 1998-99 indicates a gloomy picture for the balance period of 1998-99, says Prithvi Haldea of Prime. "The number of public issue documents filed with SEBI for clearance has fallen from 87 per month in calendar year 1996, 7 in calendar year 1997 and 7 in the first four months of the fiscal 1998-99," says Haldea and adds this clearly indicates a gloomy trend in thefuture.

Some of the equity issues lined up from public sector banks include Punjab National Bank (Rs 500 crore), Indian Overseas Bank (Rs 450 crore) and Vijaya Bank (Rs 360 crore). While private sector banks include IDBI Bank (Rs 150 crore), Nedungadi Bank (Rs 100 crore), Centurion Bank (Rs 34 crore), UTI Bank (Rs 74 crore) and Times Bank.

On the debt front, public issue mobilisation plans for 1998-99 are from IDBI (Rs 5,000 crore), ICICI (Rs 3,000 crore) and Power Finance Corporation (Rs 500 crore).

A combination of factors including investors apathy consequent to the phenomenal losses in the 1993-95 period and lack of investor confidence in market practices have contributed to the present state of dismal affairs in the primary market, Haldea says.