Stock Market LIVE Updates: GIFT Nifty indicates a weak start; US markets gain, Asia trades lower

The initial public offering (IPO) of facilities management services provider Krystal Integrated Services has garnered healthy interest from investors on the final day of bidding, i.e. March 18 despite volatility in the equity markets.

The public issue has been subscribed 13.21 times with investors buying 3.96 crore equity shares against an IPO size of 29.99 lakh equity shares, according to the subscription data from the exchanges.

Non-institutional investors (high networth individuals) led the major support to the issue picking 43.91 times the allotted quota, while qualified institutional buyers bid 7.33 times the reserved portion and retail investors bought 3.32 times the part set aside for them.

The Mumbai-based company launched its maiden public issue on March 14 to raise Rs 300.13 crore, which comprised a fresh issuance of equity shares worth Rs 175 crore and an offer-for-sale of 17.5 lakh shares worth Rs 125.13 crore by promoter Krystal Family Holdings.

Automobile dealer Popular Vehicles and Services shares are unlikely to see any listing premium on March 19, given the muted IPO subscription numbers and the subdued market conditions, experts said.

Its initial public offering has managed to get fully subscribed as investors bought only 1.23 times the IPO size during March 12-14. Qualified institutional buyers picked 1.97 times the reserved portion, and retail investors bought 1.05 times the allotted quota, while non-institutional investors bid 0.66 times the portion set aside for them. Read More

Promoters Aditya Birla Capital and Sun Life (India) AMC Investments on March 18 approved the sale of up to 2.01 crore shares of Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC, representing 7 percent of the issued and paid-up equity share capital of the company, through an offer for sale (OFS) to achieve minimum public shareholding of the ABSLAMC.

The offer will open on March 19 for non-retail investors and on March 20 for retail investors. There will be an option to additionally sell up to 1.28 crore shares or a 4.47 percent stake. The oversubscription option will represent 11.47 percent of the total issued and paid-up equity share capital or 3.3 crore shares of the company. The floor price for the offer is set at Rs 450 per share.

BofA Securities India, IIFL Securities, Jefferies India and Spark Institutional Equities are the brokers for the transaction.

According to SEBI, a 25 percent stake in all listed companies should be held by non-promoters. A high promoter holding can lead to an artificial mismatch between demand and supply as fewer shares are available for the public to buy and sell. Read More

Tata Steel on March 18 informed the bourses that its UK unit has decided to cease operations of the coke ovens at the Port Talbot plant in Wales, following a deterioration of operational stability. Tata Steel had previously stated that many of its heavy-end assets in Port Talbot are at their end-of-life capability.

Tata Steel UK will increase imports of coke to offset the impact of the coke oven closures, the company said.

Earlier this year, Tata Steel said that it is currently losing around 1 million pounds a day from its operations in the town and keeping a blast furnace open on the site and making steel from scratch would lead to a further loss of 600 million pounds. Read More

Tata Sons has offered to sell 2.34 crore shares of IT major Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) at Rs 4,001 per share through block deals to raise $1.1 billion, reported Bloomberg on March 18.

The floor price represents a 3.6 percent discount to the last traded price. On March 18, TCS’ shares on BSE closed 1.8 percent lower at Rs 4,144.25 while their intraday high was Rs 4,254.75.

As of December 31, 2023, promoters held a 72.41 percent stake in TCS, of which Tata Sons held 72.38 percent stake, while the rest is held by Tata Investment Corporation. Citigroup and JPMorgan are reportedly the joint bookrunners of the proposed share sale. Read More

Trends on GIFT Nifty indicate a weak start for the broader index in India, with a loss of 80 points or 0.36 percent. The Nifty futures were trading around 22,056.50 level.

Asian markets were trading lower on early Tuesday ahead of central bank monetary policy decisions from the Bank of Japan and the Reserve Bank of Australia.

All eyes will be on the BOJ amid expectations that the central bank could end its negative interest rate policy after 17 years.

The benchmark indices ended on a positive note on March 18 and also erased some of the previous session losses with Nifty around 22,050 amid buying across the sectors, barring IT and FMCG.

After a negative start, the market remained in a range throughout the first half, while some selling was seen in the mid-session. However, the market erased all the losses in the second half to close with moderate gains.

At close, the Sensex was up 104.99 points or 0.14 percent at 72,748.42, and the Nifty was up 32.40 points or 0.15 percent at 22,055.70.

Tata Steel, M&M, JSW Steel, Tata Motors and Apollo Hospitals were among the top gainers on the Nifty, while losers included Tata Consumer Products, UPL, Infosys, Adani Ports and Titan Company.

Among sectors, capital goods, healthcare, auto, realty, metal and media were up 0.5-3 percent, while IT and FMCG shed 0.5-1.5 percent.

BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices ended on a flat note.