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Highlighting unquenchable investor appetite for listings, an initial public offering by a home loan subsidiary of India’s largest shadow lender- Bajaj Housing Finance Ltd., was oversubscribed by more than 60 times. The IPO strived to raise 65.6 billion rupees ($781 million) but instead garnered bids worth around $39 billion, which is over 1% of the nation’s GDP for the fiscal year 2024. The demand was spearheaded by institutional investors, with bids surpassing 200 times the allocated shares. Retail subscriptions, on the other hand, were seven times oversubscribed. This result imitates the frenzy surrounding Tata Technologies Ltd.’s IPO last year.
Indian IPOs have fetched $7.75 billion, as of now in 2024, exceeding totals from the previous two years, with an average first-day gain of 30%. Among the biggest forthcoming listings is Hyundai Motor Co.’s Indian unit, expected to yield up to $3.5 billion. Bajaj Housing plans to raise 35.6 billion rupees through new shares, with Bajaj Finance presenting 30 billion rupees.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the nation’s securities regulator, is eyeing stricter supervision of micro-cap companies going public, including increased surveillance of fund utilization and stricter austere due diligence requirements for merchant bankers, a sper a source who was involved in the discourse.
Additionally, in light of previous fraud cases in the market segment, future measures include scrutiny of financial statements and decreeing a longer track record of profitability. Despite some investors’ demands for direct supervision, SEBI, as of now, is not planning to take charge of the listing approval process for both small and medium enterprises from the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. and BSE Ltd. Discussions are still underway. Before a draft is submitted to SEBI’s primary market advisory panel, the proposed measures might undergo changes. Post-pandemic, the market for micro-listings has witnessed a leap powered by investor enthusiasm in small firms headed for growth. However, the latest oversubscritions have sparked quality concerns.
According to a report released on Wednesday by blockchain analytics firm Chainalayis, India is leading the global cryptocurrency adoption rankings for the second consecutive year as investors traversed the country’s strict regulations and high trading taxes. The report which evaluated crypto adoption across four sub-categories in 151 different countries, emphasized India’s considerable use of both centralized exchanges and decentralized finance assets from June of 2023 to July of 2024. Despite India’s stringent approach to cryptocurrencies since 2018- which encompassed the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) sending out show-case notices to nine offshore exchanges in December 2023 for being unable to act in accordance with local laws- adoption continues to be widespread across several crypto assets. This result indicates that new investors are expected to engage with services that are not confined under current regulations.
Indian equity indices BSE Sensex and Nifty 50 opened higher on Thursday, driven by gains in US markets, which also lifted other Asian markets, except China. At the opening, the BSE Sensex rose 317 points (0.39%) to 81,840, while the Nifty 50 increased by 141 points (0.57%) to 25,059. Overnight, US markets bounced back from an earlier downturn, with Brent crude prices recovering due to expectations of a 25-basis point rate cut by the US Federal Reserve next week. US stock indices reversed mid-session losses, led by tech stocks, especially chips. The Dow Jones rose 124.75 points (0.31%) to 40,861.71, the S&P 500 added 58.6 points (1.07%) to 5,554.12, and the Nasdaq gained 369.65 points (2.17%) to 17,395.53. European stocks ended flat ahead of the European Central Bank's rate decision. The STOXX 600 rose 0.01%, and MSCI’s global index gained 0.62%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 climbed 3%, and Topix gained 2.48% in early trading.
