Street signs: Manpasand stock falls, sibling rivalry at play, and more

Manpasand fall hits top PMS player
 

The sharp fall in the stock price of Manpasand Beverages has hit a leading portfolio management services (PMS) player, say market operators. This PMS participant also has a mutual fund house. According to industry players, the PMS owned almost 5-6 million shares of the company across its various products.

Manpasand Beverages' share price fell from around Rs450 to Rs128, down 71 per cent, in less than a month. The sharp fall came after auditor Deloitte, Haskins & Sells resigned due to lack of information provided by the company. On Friday, the stock closed at Rs149, up 5 per cent.   
 

Joydeep Ghosh 

Shareholder activism on the rise

Even as regulators work towards forming a common stewardship code for institutional investors, the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority has come out with its version of the code a few weeks ago. Among other things, this code calls for collaboration among institutional investors and industry bodies such as the Association of Mutual Funds in India. So far, mutual funds are the only category of domestic investors that have taken to shareholder activism. Will we now see pension funds team up with mutual funds to take on investee companies? Only time will tell. 
 

Ashley Coutinho

Sibling rivalry at play 

Varroc Engineering’s promoter Tarang Jain faces an uphill task of matching the stock market success of twin brother Anurang Jain. Shares of Endurance Technologies, promoted by Anurang, have gained nearly three times since their initial public offering (IPO) in October 2016. Varroc’s Rs20-billion maiden offering opens for subscription this week. If stock market punters are to be believed, Varroc may not be as big a hit as Endurance. Shares of Endurance had soared nearly 40 per cent at debut. Grey market operators are signing a premium of just seven per cent to Varroc. 

Samie Modak