Select PSU shares rally on heavy volumes

STC India, MMTC, Hindustan Copper and HMT are up 5-17% on BSE.

Shares of select public sector undertaking (PSU) companies having government holding more than 75% are have rallied up to 15% on back of heavy volumes after offer-for-sales (OFS) of Oil India and National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) got strong response from the overseas investors.

MMTC has surged 17% to Rs 599 on BSE in back of over ten-fold jump in trading volumes. The stock opened at Rs 512 and has seen a combined 1.6 million shares changing hands on the counter till 1209 hours.

State Trading Corporation of India has soared 15% to Rs 219 on BSE. As many as a combined 1.55 million shares have already changed hands on the counter so far against an average sub 50,000 shares that were traded daily in past two weeks on NSE and BSE.

Hindustan Copper, HMT, National Fertilisers, RCF, Engineers India and Dredging Corporation of India are trading higher by 3-8% at 1157 hours.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have snapped up almost half of the 9.5% stake the government has divested in state-run NTPC OFS.

According to the data released by finance ministry today, FII’s contribution to the total  Rs 11,469 crore proceeds from the OFS stood at 5,153 crore, the Business Standard report suggests.

Meanwhile, FIIs picked up 60% of the Oil India offer with bids amounting to Rs 1,898 crore. This was closely followed by mutual funds which got 19.29% shares with bid amount of Rs 606 crore