Varun Beverages ends flat on market debut

Shares of Varun Beverages, PepsiCo's bottler, ended four per cent higher over issue price on Tuesday. The stock gained Rs 17 in market debut to close at Rs 462 compared to issue price of Rs 445.

The shares touched a high of Rs 471 and a low of Rs 417 on the BSE. At Tuesday's close, the market capitalisation of Varun Beverages was Rs 8,404 crore.

The bottler's initial public offering (IPO) of shares in end-October had garnered 1.86 times subscription. The issue was a mix of offer for sale by promoters, including Ravi Jaipuria, and fresh shares worth Rs 660 crore. 

Kotak Investment Banking, Axis Capital, CLSA India, and Yes Securities were book-running lead managers for the issue.

Varun Beverages will use the IPO proceeds to partly repay its debt taken to fuel expansion of operations in the past few years.

Varun Beverages is bottler and distributor of Pepsi in most of north and east India.

In the domestic market, 18 scrips out of 30 ended higher while 12 closed lower.

Tata Motors emerged as the top gainer among Sensex constituents by rising 6.49 per cent to Rs 540.20 after reports that Credit Suisse has upgraded its shares to "outperform" from "neutral".

Shares of ICICI Bank rose nearly 2 per cent today after the company reported a net profit of Rs 3,102 crore for the quarter ended September as against Rs 3,030 crore in the corresponding period a year ago.

State-run power equipment maker BHEL's shares advanced by 2.87 per cent to Rs 143.15 after the company reported a net profit of Rs 109 crore in the second quarter.

Other big gainers that supported the key indices included GAIL, Asian Paint, Power Grid, Bajaj Auto, Axis Bank, ONGC, HDFC Ltd, M&M, Dr Reddy's, Wipro and Infosys, rising by up to 2.94 per cent.

However, Sun Pharma fell by 3.35 per cent, followed by Cipla 1.74 per cent, Maruti 1.03 per cent, Adani Ports 0.94 per cent, NTPC 0.71 per cent and Tata Steel 0.70 per cent.

The market breadth turned negative as 1,528 stocks ended lower, 1,354 finished in green while 128 ruled steady.

The total turnover on BSE amounted to Rs 3,142.77 crore, lower than turnover of Rs 3,203.53 crore registered during the previous trading session.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 311.18 crore yesterday, as per provisional data.