Bandhan Bank soars 20% on reports of inclusion in MSCI Index

Shares of Bandhan Bank zoomed 20 per cent to trade at Rs 608.3 per share on the BSE on Friday on reports that the private lender would be included in the MSCI Global Standard index with effect from October 16.

In a tweet, analysts at Motilal Oswal Financial Services said that the inclusion was a result of merger with HDFC-owned Gruh Finance.

Last week, Kolkata and Ahmedabad benches of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) approved the merger of Gruh Finance and Bandhan Bank. 

"Consequently, October 17th has been fixed as 'record date' for the purpose of determining the shareholders of GRUH who shall be entitled to receive the equity shares of the Bank, and also for determining portfolio of the Non-Convertible Debenture holders of GRUH which shall be shifted to the new International Securities Identification Numbers (ISINs) created by the Bank, pursuant to the effectiveness of the merger," Bandhan Bank said in a regulatory filing.

Bandhan Bank's merger with Gruh Finance will help the Kolkata-based private lender diversify its loan portfolio of Rs 45,400 crore, which is heavily skewed towards micro loans with 85 per cent share.

The stock of the private lender, however, pared gains later, and was trading 9 per cent higher at Rs 553.05 apiece at 11:50 am. In comparison, the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex was trading 0.12 per cent higher at 37,926 level. A total of 7.3 million shares have changed hands on the NSE and BSE so far.

Gruh Finance, too, touched an intra-day high of Rs 327.3 per share, up 20 per cent, but trimmed gains later to trade 8 per cent higher at Rs 293.95.