India's equity, bond sales surge in first half of 2017

REUTERS - India experienced a surge in equity and bond sales in the first half of the year as markets rallied amid expectations for an improving economy and for additional reforms from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.

Equity and equity-linked issuances by Indian companies surged 127.8 percent to $10 billion in the first half of 2017 from the same period a year earlier, according to Thomson Reuters data released on Monday.

The money raised through initial public offerings surged 116.3 percent to $2.6 billion, the data also showed, including a $783.5 million listing by infrastructure investment trust IRB InvIT Fund.

Meanwhile, secondary share sales surged 154.3 percent to $7.5 billion, including a blockbuster $2.3 billion qualified institutional placement by State Bank of India, India's biggest state lender by assets.

The strong performance comes on the back of a strong year for Indian shares given widespread optimism about the economy because of expected reforms by Modi's government.

India early on Saturday introduced its biggest tax reform in the 70 years since independence from British colonial rule, a goods and services tax that replaces more than a dozen federal and state levies.

Debt markets also boomed, according to the data, with primary bond offerings from Indian issuers totalling $36.5 billion in the first half of 2017, up 57.1 percent from 2016 - the highest first-half period since 2013.

Rupee-denominated bond sales rose 37.2 percent to 2 trillion rupees ($30.84 billion) in the first half of 2017, a 37.2 percent increase and the highest first-half of a year since records began in 2000, according to Thomson Reuters data.

($1 = 64.8500 rupees)

(Reporting by Tanvi Mehta in Bengaluru; Editing by Rafael Nam)