PNB Housing hits new high; stock zooms 100% against IPO price

The stock hit high of Rs 1,559, more than doubled against its issue price of Rs 775 per share.

PNB Housing Finance  rallied 6% to Rs 1,559, extending its previous day’s 6% surge on the BSE, after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) lowered risk weights assigned to home loans lent on or after June 7.

The stock is trading at its highest level since its listing on November 7, 2016. It has more than doubled against its initial public offer (IPO) price of Rs 775 per share.

PNB Housing Finance, promoted by Punjab National Bank, had raised Rs 3,000 crore through IPO. The issue was oversubscribed 29.55 times at a price band of Rs 750-775 per share.

“The RBI has liberalized risk weights for individual home loans above Rs 30 lakh on prospective basis. This is expected to particularly benefit housing finance companies (HFCs) traditionally operating in the larger ticket size segment being focused on metros and urban areas,” said Amar Ambani, Head of Research, IIFL Wealth Management.

Some of the beneficiaries would be Housing Development Corporation (HDFC), PNB Housing Finance, Indiabulls Housing and LIC Housing Finance, the brokerage firm said in policy review.

The central bank also lowered the standard asset provision on incremental home loans to 0.25% from 0.4% which will benefit the entire sector, it added.

HDFC (Rs 1,634) and LIC Housing Finance (Rs 749) too hit their respective all-time highs on BSE in intra-day trade today.

COMPANY	LATEST	PREV CLOSE	GAIN(%)
PNB HOUSING	1538.0	1476.6	4.2
H D F C	1631.0	1597.6	2.1
GIC HOUSING FIN	573.3	561.9	2.0
LIC HOUSING FIN.	745.0	739.7	0.7
INDIABULLS HOUS.	1146.0	1139.0	0.6
GRUH FINANCE	407.1	405.7	0.4
DEWAN HSG. FIN.	432.5	431.1	0.3
REPCO HOME FIN	785.0	783.3	0.2